Memories
by lunylovegoodlover
Summary: One day, Harry receives memories of nine teenagers, including his parents. When their headmaster and many of their teachers are called away to fight against Voldemort, it's these teenagers who have to run the school. This is the tale of how they survived.
1. A Strange Visitor

A Strange Visitor

"A year. I can't believe it's been an entire year since Voldemort died." Ginny Weasley leaned against the doorway, looking at the four people inside. Four people, all of whom were barely healing from the scars the war had left. Four people who were just beginning to move on. Four of the only people who understood her.

Neville Longbottom was filling out an application to become the assistant Herbology teacher at Hogwarts. Hermione Granger was rereading _The Tales of Beatle the Bard_ for the millionth time, while her boyfriend, Ron Weasley, read over her shoulder and Harry Potter, Ginny's boyfriend, the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, the most famous wizard of the century, frowned over a piece of parchment. Upon hearing Ginny's voice, he looked up and beckoned for her to come to him.

"And Merlin, what a year!" Hermione said, looking up. "Why anyone would ever want to be famous…" she trailed off, shuddering as she remembered the past year.

It hadn't been a good one. First, there had been the nasty, tiring job of hunting down the remaining Death Eaters and cleaning up the huge mess that Voldemort had left. And when that all was done, all the heroes of the war had found themselves swamped in fame. As the generally acclaimed "Most Heroic" witches and wizards, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and their friend Luna Lovegood got the worst of it.

They all dealt with it in different ways. Hermione had become stressed and irritable, but had difficulty sending people about their business. Ginny had no trouble with that, but she hated the whisperings that followed her wherever she went. Neville hid behind the others, giving them all the credit, flinching from the spotlight. At first, Ron had enjoyed the fame, but once the novelty wore off, he grew petulant to the point of being rude to anyone who talked to him. Luna simply packed up her things and left the country to go searching for Crumple-horned Snorkack. With her went the only non-Lovegood in the country (and maybe the world) who thought that the Snorkack might actually exist, a researcher named Rolf Scamander.

But of course Harry got most of the publicity. He could scarcely leave his house (he was residing at Number 12, Grimwald Place) without someone stopping him on the street to ask him a question or just say hi and, wherever he went, hundreds of eyes and whispers followed him. He was always polite to the people who spoke to him, but it drove him insane.

"Don't tell anyone not famous that you don't like being famous," he advised Hermione now. "Believe me, I've tried it enough. They always give you that look, like 'Are you insane? You're the most famous wizard in the world! What could be better?'"

"Why don't we just take the day off?" Neville asked. They all stared at him in disbelief. "We attend the memorial, but don't take any questions, comments, interviews, or anything like that. Get a day of peace. There's no law that says we have to talk to all those people. It wouldn't work for every day, but we can say that we're honoring our fallen friends."

For a second, there was silence as everyone in the room processed what he had just said. Then,

"Neville, you're a genius!" Ginny bounded across the room and hugged him.

"We've got four hours before the memorial," Harry said, looking at the old dented watch that had been Fabian Prewett's. "I, for one, intend to spend those four hours here, instead of out, like we'd planned."

"And if anyone comes to the door, we'll just send them away!" Hermione said, getting excited. "Neville, you're a genius!"

Their resolution was tested five minutes later when the doorbell rang. The five of them looked at each other, then simultaneously shrugged. Ron spoke for them all when he said, "Oh, just let it ring. They'll go away soon enough, and it's not like we have to deal with Mrs. Black anymore."

They all laughed, remembering the difficulty they had had when Harry had decided that the portrait of Sirius's mum just had to come down. It had taken them weeks of research, but in the end they had compiled a list of things to try. Three months after they had started, they finally managed to get the portrait down.

In the next half hour, they found that whoever was ringing the doorbell might be just as hard to get rid of. Finally, Hermione went to go send them away.

When she opened the door, she saw a witch standing there, with a ridiculous looking bag at her feet. Her long black hair was escaping her French braid, and she seemed to be about 35 years old. There was something vaguely familiar about her face, as though she were related to someone Hermione knew well.

"I'm sorry," Hermione said. "But we're not taking questions or comments or anything today."

The woman nodded. "Very understandable. But would you do me a favor and relay these letters to Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom?" From her bag she drew out two pieces of folded parchment, one with each boy's name on it.

"We're not taking fan mail, either," Hermione said. "I truly am sorry, but we're taking today off."

"Very understandable," the woman repeated. "However, this is not fan mail. It's very, very important. Will you please give them the letters and then tell me their responses?"

Rather flustered, Hermione said, "Well…I suppose. Who should I tell them the letters are from?"

"Harry's is from his mum, and Neville's is from me."

"This letter's from Harry's _mum_? How did you find it? We've looked everywhere for things of theirs!"

The woman laughed. "It was left in my care before she died."

"Why in the world didn't you come forward with it before?"

The woman's back straightened and she fixed Hermione with a piercing look. "There are some promises that you _never_ break, even 18 years later when the people you promised have been dead 17 years."

Hermione looked at her, rather astonished. "What does that have to do with this letter?"

"Please, just give them the letters," the woman said, holding them out. "Then I can explain."

Hermione sighed. She _really_ didn't want to ruin their perfect, publicity-free day, but it seemed as if she had no choice. Her gut was telling her to trust what this woman said. "All right," she said, and took the letters. "I'll be back in a moment."

Shutting the door, she didn't go straight back to the others. Instead, she went into a small room to her right. There, she tested the letters thoroughly, making absolutely certain that there was nothing in them that would harm anyone. Only when she was 100% sure they were safe did she take them to Harry and Neville.

When she told them what had happened, they protested, just as she knew they would. But the instant Harry saw his letter, he grabbed it.

"This is my mum's handwriting!"

Hermione nodded. "That woman said it was from her."

As Harry ripped his letter open, Neville shrugged. "I might as well read mine, I suppose," he said, reaching for it.

As they read, the other three watched them, curious. Neville finished first, as his was shorter.

_Dear Neville, _it read.

_You have never known me, but I was an old friend of your parents'. For the complete story, refer to Harry's letter. In the last days of the first war, we all knew that we were in grave danger. Therefore, we came up with a series of potions and spells that would retrieve our minds if we were tortured. If you are willing, I would like to give you the ones made for your parents. I cannot say if they will work, as we were unable to test them, but none of them are harmful. If this sounds agreeable, please let me know. Alice and Frank were two of my best friends, and I would love to see them themselves again._

_Harriett Black_

Neville showed it to the others. "Is it possible, what she's talking about?" he asked. "Could my parents really come back?"

"Well…" Hermione said. "It's been tried before, in hundreds of different ways. In theory, it could work, but it never has in practice. There's a chance it could work this time."

"Why didn't the Healers try it before?" Ron asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Because you have to do all the prep work _before_ they lose their minds, Ronald," she said as though she were talking to a two-year-old. "Otherwise, it doesn't work."

"How'd you become the expert on magical remedies?" Ron retorted.

"Honestly, Ron!" Ginny said. "What do you think she did in her spare time for six years?"

"Oh, knock it off," Hermione said. "I just did some research after the war ended, to see if I could find anything to help Neville's parents." Turning back to Neville, she said, "I think you should go get these potions and spells. We can test them, make sure they're as harmless as she says. There's always the chance that it'll work."

Just then, Harry rose from his seat and walked quickly out the door. His letter lay on the floor next to the chair he had been sitting in. Ginny picked it up and read it aloud.

_Dear Harry,_

If you are reading this, it means that we are dead, and Lord Voldemort was defeated a year ago. If you were given this from a woman who looks about my age, then that is your godmother, your dad's cousin, Harriett. You were named for her. Listen to her and take what she has to give to you. She will explain everything to you.

If, despite all our precautions, Harriett was killed, then this letter was delivered to you by muggle post. It has been spelled so no one but you can open it, so you don't have to worry that it was not safe. Take the key that came with this (if Harriett gave this to you, don't worry about the key; just do what she says) and go to the Head's common room at Hogwarts. Find the door that hasn't been opened since 1979 and open it with the key. If you need help, go to teachers or previous Head Boys or Girls.

Inside that room, you will find a pensive, a big jar of memories, and a case that hold vials of memories. Pour the big jar into the pensive and dive in. The vials contain the same memories, just separated and labeled.

If Voldemort is truly dead, and you were the cause of his death, you've already seen more pain and suffering than anyone should see in a lifetime. I hope you know that we all stood behind you the entire way. I may be dead by the time you read this letter, but that can't diminish my love or you father's love for you, Harry. We know that you life has most likely been hard, and that that is due in large part to choices we made. We want you to understand those choices. If we are dead, it's probably been hard for you, not knowing us. But we had to make sure it was safe before we gave you this information. Now, we can show you who we are.

I love you more than you can possibly imagine.

Your loving mother,

Lily Potter

Dear Harry,

Your mum basically said it all, but I just wanted to get a word in here to tell you to not think too badly of my friends and me when you see what we were like. I hope you have enough of Lily in you to not act like I did.

Also, I just wanted to give you a little advice, man to man. I have no idea how old you're going to be when you read this, but if you ever are in love with a girl, do not, I repeat DO NOT ask her out every chance you get and when she refuses (if she does, though if you're anything like me, she shouldn't) ask her why, telling her she's getting a great catch. Believe me, it doesn't work. I should know.

The third thing I wanted to say is that I am depending on you to keep up the Potter tradition of a) being in Gryffindor (though I suppose Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff wouldn't be too bad. If you get in Slytherin, though…) and b) playing on the quidditch team. Chaser would be best (that's what I play) but really, as long as you're on the team, its fine.

But the main thing I want to tell you is that I love you. If you're reading this, Voldemort's dead, and you brought about his downfall. I'm proud beyond belief that my son did that! However, I'm probably dead. So say hi to everyone who's still alive for me, and remember that I love you with all my heart.

Lots and lots of love,

James Potter

P.S. I hope you killed more Death Eaters than Neville did. I've got a bet with Frank about that.

Just as Ginny finished reading, Harry walked in. "Guys, I'd like you to meet my dad's cousin, Harriett."

Once all the greetings were done, Ginny asked Harriett what she had for them.

"Memories," Harriett said, pulling a pensive and a jar of liquid silver out of her bag."

"Of what?" Hermione asked.

"You'll see," was all Harriett would say. She poured the memories into the pensive, then gestured for all of them to go in.

The teenagers looked at each other, then, one by one, dove into the past.


	2. Childhoods

Childhoods

"Petunia! Lily! Girls, come on!"

"Coming, Mum!"

"Tell no one about this, you understand? No one."

The red-haired girl ducked her head and nodded. "I understand."

"That includes that boy. Got it?"

"Yes, Tuney."

"Good. Let's go."

"She's still bullying you, isn't she?"

"Sev…"

"Don't lie, Lily. I know what she's doing."

"Leave her alone, Severus. I can deal with it on my own."

"So you admit something's going on?"

She sighed. "Let me handle it."

"Hello." Lily stared at the lady on her doorstep. Something deep within her told her that this was the beginning of a new life. "You're Lily Evans?" She nodded. "Wonderful. May I please speak to you and your parents?"

Lily finally got up the courage to ask, "What's your name?"

"Professor Minerva McGonagall. I've come to talk to you about a special school."

Lily's whole face lit up. "Hogwarts!" Running inside, she shouted, "MUM! DAD! COME HERE! THERE'S SOMEONE WHO NEEDS TO TALK TO YOU!"

BANG! The yard duty came running over, resignation clear on her face. She doesn't even have to say anything – James knows the drill. He's already on his way to the office.

"Sit down, James." The principal, too, was resigned. He had hoped, since there were only 4 days of school this week and it was right before Christmas, to not see James in his office. "What was it this time?"

"Thomas and his friends were bullying Laurence."

"You went in to stop it…"

"And Thomas tried to beat me up. Then…" James hesitated. He knew what had happened, why it had happened, but it wasn't something he could tell the muggle principal. He sighed. He loved school, but being the only wizard there wasn't fun.

"Then what?" the principal prompted him.

"Then I beat him up, and then I came here," James said, and pinched himself as punishment for lying.

"James, dear, there's a letter for you!"

James shot out of bed and flew down the stairs, four at a time (something possible only if you're young, magical, and _very_ excited). When he arrived in the kitchen, he found his dad drinking his usual coffee and his mum reading the _Prophet_. "Where's my letter?" he demanded.

"Right there on the counter, dear."

James pounced on it, his heart plummeting when he saw that it was from his cousin. "Oh."

Dejectedly, he went back to bed to sleep for another few hours. His parents just looked at him and shook their heads. "Was there ever anyone so excited to go to Hogwarts?" Mrs. Potter mumbled to herself as she folded up her paper and went to make some toast.

"Hello." The girl looked to be about his age.

"Hi," Sirius said back.

"Want to play tag with me?"

Sirius glanced over his shoulder to where his mother and aunt sat talking. _Aw, why not?_ he thought. "Sure."

And for an hour, they were friends.

"Sirius. Orion. Black. What were you thinking, playing with that filthy girl in the park? I knew I should never have taken you there."

Walburga is met with silence.

"You have three seconds to explain yourself. One…two…three. Very well, then. _Cruico!_"

Three hours later, Sirius stumbled from his mother's sitting room, only half conscious. "Psst, Sirius." Slowly, he raised his head and saw his cousin Andromeda. "Come here," she whispered. When he reaches her, she pulls out her wand and carefully repairs his wounds. "One more year, Siri. Just one more year, and you'll be out of here. One more year."

"Bellatrix, dear, you will keep an eye on Sirius, won't you? You know you have my permission to do whatever it takes to keep the boy in line! You know what I'm talking about, bless you, Bella. He must be in Slytherin, must make the right sort of friends and, under _no condition…"_

"Talk to, associate with, or even glance at mudbloods," Bellatrix finished. "I know, Aunt Walburga. You can depend on me. I'll drill the right sorts of thoughts into his head this year, and Narcissia can carry on when I'm gone. She's only two years older than Sirius, you know. And don't worry; I'll still keep an eye on him."

"It was a blessing when you were born," Walburga said. "Is it true you will be joining the Death Eaters?"

Bellatrix nodded, excited, and the conversation turned to blood-ist (judging someone on how much magical blood they have) talk that would make your blood curdle.

"Maybe it'll be for the best. After all, what kind of life will he have if he lives?"

"Don't say that!" Mrs. Lupin rounded on her sister. "Don't even think it. That's my son in there, my son! If you think that I'm going to let him die…"

"He'll be a monster! Is that the kind of life you want for your child? He won't go to Hogwarts. He won't be able to get a job. He'll be nothing but a monster!"

For a moment, Mrs. Lupin just stared at her sister. Then, in one quick motion, she ran to the door and yanked it open. "Get. Out." When her sister didn't move, she added, "NOW." Her sister left.

Mrs. Lupin stared after her, then collapsed onto the sofa. Three hours later when her husband came home from St. Mungo's, he found her there, crying still.

"It will, of course, be difficult, but I believe we can make it work."

"Daddy?" A sandy-haired boy peeked around the corner. "Mummy? Who's that?"

Mr. Lupin picked his son up. "That, Remus, is Professor Albus Dumbledore. He's the headmaster of Hogwarts."

Remus' face fell. "Oh," he said dejectedly. "Okay." He squirmed out of his father's arms and headed back to his room. He hated any mention of Hogwarts. All it meant to him was someplace he couldn't go.

"Remus," Dumbledore called after him. "May I talk to you for a moment?"

Slowly, Remus nodded. "We'll let you two talk," Mrs. Lupin said, pulling her husband out of the room. When they returned twenty minutes later, they found their son sitting on the counter, bouncing for joy.

"Mummy! Daddy!" he called when he saw them. "I'M GOING TO HOGWARTS!"

On September 1, 1971, King's Cross Station was a busy, bustling place, and Platform 9 ¾ was no different. Returning students hollered greetings across the station to each other, parents gave out last minute reminders, and, all in all, it was unbelievably chaotic. The first years ranged from James, who was bouncing up and down with excitement, to Sirius, looking terrified as his mother yelled threats in his ears.

It took quite some time, but eventually, everyone got on the train, and, at promptly 11:00 AM, the Hogwarts Express left King's Cross.


	3. The Journey to Hogwarts

The Journey to Hogwarts

James walked down the corridor of the Hogwart's Express, looking for a compartment. Finally, at the back of the train, he found one that was almost empty. The only occupant was a boy who looked to be in his first year. _Perfect,_ James thought. It was time to start making friends.

"Can I sit here?" The boy looked up and ran his eyes over James. He seemed to be considering whether or not James was worthy of his attention. Eventually he nodded.

James slipped into the seat next to the boy and held out his hand. "I'm James Potter. I'm just starting. Are you a first year, too?"

The boy nodded and tentatively took the proffered hand. "I'm Sirius." Inside, Sirius' mind was whirling. He had heard his mum talking about the Potters. They were an old pureblood family, as old as the Blacks, but they were muggle-lovers. He didn't know that they had a son.

Before they could say more, the compartment door slid open, and a red-haired girl walked in.

"Can I sit here?" the girl asked. "Everywhere else is full." Sirius and James looked at each other and nodded consent.

There was silence for few minutes, until a boy with black, greasy hair and a hooked nose walked in and went over to the girl.

"Look at his hair," James whispered to Sirius. The boy glared at them.

Ten minutes later, the boys were alone again, laughing their heads off. "Her face…" Sirius gasped. "And honestly, who names their kid Snivillus?"

"She was kinda cute," James said thoughtfully when they had gotten control of themselves.

Sirius shrugged. "I dunno. The only girls I've ever really seen are my cousins."

"Who are they? Who are you, for that matter? You seem decent, but if all your family's been in Slytherin…"

"Sirius Black," Sirius said hesitantly.

"Black?" James repeated thoughtfully. "I think my parents hate yours."

"They've got a good reason."

"What's your family like?"

"Awful," said Sirius. "I- I don't really want to talk about it."

"That's fine," James assured him. "I'll tell you about my family instead."

So James regaled Sirius with tales of burning Christmas trees, drunken uncles, wizened old grandmothers who tyrannized the family, and, unconsciously, drew a picture of a life so different from Sirius' that it was as though they were different species.

But by the time the trolley witch came around, the two were on the way to being best friends. She was a middle-aged woman, rather plump and very cheerful. She opened the door to their compartment to see the two of them literally rolling on the floor with laughter. It didn't disconcert her in the least.

"Anything off the trolley, dears?"

James instantly sprung from his seat and began to rummage for his money. Sirius, on the other hand, shook his head slowly. When James saw, he asked, "Why aren't you buying anything?"

"No money," Sirius explained.

"Piffle!" James said. "I'll pay."

It was a good thing that they were the last carriage, because in the end, they bought everything on the cart. The next few hours were spent chowing down on the masses of candy. They traded Chocolate Frog cards and discussed Quidditch teams (James supported Puddlemere United, while Sirius was a huge supporter of the Chudly Cannons).

"Are you mad, mate? The Cannons are worthless!"

"They are not! They'll make a comeback this year, just wait and see."

Just then, the compartment door slid open. Two teenage girls were there. Sirius jumped the instant he saw them, and James saw fear enter his friend's eyes.

"Good luck with the sorting, Sirius," the blonde said.

"Just make sure you get in Slytherin," the dark-haired one said. She looked as though she were about a seventh year. "And remember, I'm watching you." She cast her eyes over James. "Who's this?"

"My friend." Sirius sounded depressed. Now his mum would find out he had a muggle lover as a friend.

"What's his name?" the older one demanded.

James glared at them. He had a good guess as to who these people were. "I'm James Potter."

"Potter?" The younger one looked at Sirius as though he had gone mad. "Let me give you a bit of advice, Sirius. Don't hang out with a Potter. They like _mudbloods_."

Sirius hesitated, then glanced at James. James nodded, telling Sirius that he would stand with him. "Maybe I like muggle-borns, too."

For a moment, there was silence as the girls processed this. Then the older one threw back her head and laughed. "Thanks, Sirius! Your mum will be _thrilled_ to hear that I've squashed that little thought. Now come on. You're with us for the rest of the ride."

"I'm staying here. You can't boss me around, Bellatrix."

The older girl laughed. "Oh, I think you'll find that I can." She twirled her wand suggestively. "Now come on."

"He said he's staying here." James had his wand out, too.

"Oooh, a first year with a wand. I'm terrified," Bellatrix sneered.

Before James could retort, help arrived in the form of a large black owl. It was James'. His parents had given it to him that spring, for his birthday. It swooped down and began to attack the girls. It landed in their hair, hit them with its wings, and scratched them with its talons. They fled.

As they were leaving, Bellatrix yelled over her shoulder, "This isn't over, Sirius! You'll hear more from me!"

The boys fell back onto the seats. "That was close," James said. "Were those your cousins?"

Sirius nodded. "Bellatrix and Narcissia. They're my mum's eyes and ears here. There's no way I'm going to get rid of them."

"I'll help you. You were great, standing up to them like that."

"It was my first time. They scare me to death."

The door slid open again, and a teenage girl who looked a lot like Bellatrix flew in.

"Have you seen Bella or Cissy?" she demanded of Sirius.

"Yeah, they just left," he replied.

She swore under her breath and plopped down into an empty seat. "What'd they say?"

Sirius shrugged. "The usual. Told me I had to get into Slytherin, insulted my new best friend, and threatened me."

"How'd you get rid of them?"

Sirius grinned. "James' owl attacked them. This is James Potter, by the way. James, this is my other cousin, Andromeda."

Andromeda looked James over, then said, "You be good to Sirius. Things are tough at home. I got lucky and gained some great friends when I got here. That's all that got me through the vacations. Things are going to be hard for you lot. We're heading into dark times, and you're going to need all the friends you can get. So the two of you stick by each other and don't be afraid to stand up to Bella and Cissy and their lot. Understand?" She looked down at the first years sternly. "I'll do what I can to help, but you're going to have to work to have a normal life what with You-Know-Who on the rise. Now, I've got to be getting back to my duties. I'm a prefect this year," she explained to James. "See you both at the sorting."

Her parting call was very different from her sister's. "Don't get in Slytherin!"

"Is all your family like that?" James asked.

"What, you mean insane? Yeah."

"Tell me more about them!"

Slowly, cautiously, Sirius did. He had just finished telling James about a prank he'd played on his brother, Regulus, when he looked down, and said, "I've got a goal for my time at Hogwarts. I want to be the biggest prankster _ever_."

James shot to his feet. "You can't do that!"

"Why not?" Sirius was on his feet, too.

"Because I'm going to be the biggest prankster ever!"

A boy opened the compartment door and stuck his head in. His sandy hair fell in his face, and he was badly scarred.

"Will you shut up in here?" he demanded, looking irritable. "We put up with your laughing for hours, but shouting's just too much."

James and Sirius nodded. The boy glared at them for another minute, then went back to his own compartment.

"Merlin, what a fusspot!" James said. "Whatever house I'm in, I hope he's not in it."

They enjoyed a brief laugh over that, and then got back to their disagreement, though they were careful not to shout. After a few pointless minutes of arguing, Sirius came up with a brilliant idea.

"Why can't we _both_ be the biggest prankster ever? We can do the pranks together!"

James agreed this was a great idea, and the rest of the journey continued unmarred.

When they got to the station, James began jumping up and down again.

"Will you stop that?" Sirius demanded. "It's getting on my nerves."

"Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!"

"Let's go," James said, excited. "I'll introduce you to Hagrid."

"Hagrid? I think I've heard of him."

"He's gamekeeper here. You'll like him. He's a friend of my parents." James practically dragged Sirius over to Hagrid. He looked very imposing, standing silhouetted in the fog with his lantern in his hand and his dog beside him.

"Hi, Hagrid!" James called out when they were close enough. "I've got someone for you to meet!"

"How yeh doin', James?" the half-giant hollered back.

"I'm fine!" Finally reaching Hagrid, James gave him a big hug. "This is Sirius Black. He's my best friend."

"A Black, eh?" Hagrid shook his head. "Ain't no good, James."

"I'm not like the others," Sirius said. He shuddered. "I hate them all, except Andromeda."

"So yer 'nother one like her, are yeh? Good fer yeh! This everyone?" From his massive height, Hagrid looked down at the first years. "C'mon, then."

Hagrid led all the first years down to the lake, where a fleet of boats was waiting. "Get in," he said.

By the time James and Sirius got to a boat, there were no empty ones. They decided to join one of the emptier ones, which already had four people in it. One of them was the boy who had scolded them for yelling earlier. The second was a plump, watery-eyed boy with mousey brown hair. The other two were the boy and girl who shared a compartment with James and Sirius for the beginning of the trip.

As the girl glared at them, Sirius asked, "Can we sit here? Everywhere else is full." He smirked as she seethed. But everyone else was in a boat, and she had to relent.

"Thanks!" James said, giving her a charming smile. She sneered at him, then went back to talking with her friend. But Sirius seemed intent on provoking her.

"We never really did get introduced on the train," he said to her friend. "What's your name again? Snivillus?"

"Just ignore him," the girl muttered under her breath.

"And you?" James asked. "What's your name?"

"Why do you care?" she retorted.

"Because I think you're really cute," he told her.

For a moment, she just sat there, gaping at him. Then her eyes flashed and she drew her wand.

"Whoa," Sirius said. They had started moving, by this point, but none of them really cared. Now Sirius drew his own wand. "You attack James, you have to deal with me, too."

She laughed. "And how many spells do you know?"

"As many as you do, I bet!" Sirius yelled.

She scoffed. "I've tried every spell in all our books," she said. "And mastered most of them."

"Could you postpone the duel until we're not in the middle of the lake?" the scarred boy asked, but no one paid any attention to him.

"You may have the advantage of us in magic," Sirius said. "But we…ummm…we can punch!"

The girl smirked and, so quickly James almost missed it, punched Sirius in the gut. He doubled over, making the boat rock wildly. Hagrid, pointing out the first view of Hogwarts, didn't notice. Sirius jumped to his feet, and shoved the girl. Snivillus flew at him, knocking over the two boys who weren't involved in the quarrel. The pudgy one fell into the lake. No one noticed, except Hagrid, who finally noticed the commotion due to the boy's yelling.

"What's goin' on back there?" he yelled. There was no answer except the boy's hollering. 

"HELP!" he yelled. "HELP! I'M DROWNING! I CAN'T SWIM! HELP! HELP! HEEELLLLPPPP!"

Pardonably annoyed, Hagrid ordered the other students to stay put, and began to row back to the troublesome boat. There, the trouble had escalated. James was attempting to duel Lily and losing miserably. Sirius was beating Snape's head against the seats in the boat. The boy who had scolded James and Sirius on the train had tried, at first, to stop the fight, but he quickly gave up and was now just attempting to stay in the boat.

"Break it up! Break it up!" Hagrid yelled. He pulled out a pink umbrella and pointed it at the boat. There was a bang, and suddenly everyone in the boat froze. "That's it! Yer all goin' to Professor Dumbledore as soon as we get to school!"

For the rest of the boat ride, the children were frozen as their boat rowed itself to Hogwarts, right behind Hagrid's. The instant they arrived, Hagrid put the rest of the children into the care of a middle-aged witch who looked to be very, very strict and took the miscreants to the headmaster's office. They trembled the whole way.

As Hagrid dragged the kids to the office, they were amazed at what they saw. Even Sirius and James, who had spent their entire lives surrounded by wizarding splendor, were impressed. The moving portraits, live suits of armor, talking walls and trick stairs made Lily finally believe that the day hadn't just been a dream. If she hadn't been in so much trouble, she would have enjoyed herself.

But that one fact kept coming back and ruining her enjoyment. Ever since she was eight and Snape had convinced her she was a witch, Lily had been imagining this day. And now it was ruined. All because of that idiotic boy from the train, her perfect day was completely destroyed. Then Lily vowed to herself that somehow, sometime, she would make him pay for that. She didn't even know his name yet, but he would suffer for this.

When they got to the office, the kids who hadn't previously met Dumbledore were shocked at the appearance of their headmaster. Professor Dumbledore didn't look imposing. He had long white hair and a beard that was almost as long. He didn't look like he had battled the last great dark wizard and won. If anything, he looked like a harmless old man.

"Hagrid?" he said in confusion as the gamekeeper dragged the kids into the office. "To what do I owe this honor?"

"These here kids," Hagrid said, "were fightin'. On the boats."

"Well, now. We can't have that, can we? What was the fight about?" Dumbledore enquired of the kids.

They all burst into agitated discussion. For a minute or two, there was chaos as Dumbledore attempted to quiet them. Eventually, he resorted to shooting purple fireworks form his wand. That did the job.

"Will you please explain it to me one at a time? Mr…" Dumbledore looked expectantly at Snape.

"Snape."

"Mr. Snape, will you please explain your version of the disagreement?"

"It started on the train. Lily-" He indicated the redhead beside him. "-and I were looking for a compartment. The only one we could find had _them_ in it." He glared at James and Sirius. "We were talking, and then the one with glasses started insulting me."

"I did not!" James retorted hotly.

"Please remain quiet, Mr…" Dumbledore said.

"Potter. But that's not true! I didn't insult him!"

"None the less, please remain quiet. You will have your chance to tell your side of the story in a minute." Peering over his fingers, Dumbledore looked expectantly at Snape.

"Like I was saying, he insulted me. Then the other one started doing the same. Lily and I left the compartment. On the way out, Potter tried to trip me." Snape paused to glare at James, who was seething. "When we got to the station, Lily and I got into a boat with those two." He nodded to the other boys. "Then Potter and his friend barged into our boat. We had to let them stay, because the others were all full. Then they started insulting Lily. She got mad. They threatened to attack her. She lost her temper with what's-his-face-"

"I have a name, you know!" Sirius cried.

Snape sneered, but other than that, paid no attention to the interruption. "Then he shoved her, and that boy fell into the lake. Hagrid came back and froze us and brought us here."

"Thank you, Mr. Snape. Mr. Potter, would you like to go next?" Dumbledore's face was free of all emotion.

"Yes, I would!" James said. "First of all, I didn't insult Snape on the train. We had a little difference of opinion, that's all. He thought that Slytherin was the best house ever, and I couldn't let that pass!" He appealed to Dumbledore, "Sir, you were in Gryffindor, you know about the rivalry!"

Dumbledore nodded. "I do. But I hope that I also am tolerant of others. Do you hope to be in Gryffindor, Mr. Potter?"

"Yes!" James said. "But anyway, we got in a bit of an argument. Snape was getting a bit insulting, so Sirius started defending me. They left the compartment. Then, on the boat, we were just trying to make conversation. I guess we got a bit provoking, because Lily drew her wand on me. Sirius drew his, too, and the two of them started arguing. Sirius slighted her-"

"Hey!"

"-and she punched him. Sirius shoved her, and then Snape pushed him. That's when the other two got knocked over, and that boy fell in the lake. The rest was like Snape said."

They all gave their testimony. The only unbiased and coherent account Dumbledore got was from the scarred boy. His name was Remus Lupin. Lily agreed with Snape and put all the blame on James and Sirius. Sirius put all the blame on her and Snape. The pudgy boy, whose name was Peter Pettigrew, was still too terrified to do more than stutter. Dumbledore had Hagrid take him to the hospital wing.

Once they had all spoken, Dumbledore leaned back and thought for a minute. Then he assigned them all detentions once a week for the rest of the month, and said he would take five points from each of them once they were sorted. Then he shooed them out of his office so the Sorting could start.

James jumped to his feet and opened the door. "Here you go, Lily," he said.

She glared at him. "Evans to you, Potter," she said as she swept out the door. James followed. _Lily Evans,_ he thought. He would have to remember that.


	4. The First Six Years

_The First Six Years_

When the children got to the Great Hall, the Sorting Hat had already sung its song. They slipped in the door and joined the other first years.

"Now," said the strict witch that they had seen earlier. "When I call your name, come forward and put the Sorting Hat on. It will announce what house you are to be in. While you are here, your house will be your family, so to speak. You will take classes with them, eat with them, and earn and lose points for them. First, we have…" And the Sorting began.

Only a minute or two later, the witch called, "Black, Sirius!" As he went up to the front, Sirius was conscious of many eyes on him. He could see Bellatrix and Narcissia sitting together at the Slytherin table. Bellatrix glared at him. At the other end of the table sat Andromeda. She showed him her crossed fingers and mouthed, _Good Luck!_

Then he was at the front, and the Sorting Hat was on his head. _Hmmm…_ a voice said. Sirius jumped. He hadn't expected the hat to talk to him. _Yes, I talk,_ the hat continued. _And yes, I can read your thoughts. You're an interesting mix, Mr. Black. There are very few whose minds are as tangled as yours. You don't want to be in Slytherin, yet you must be. You don't think you deserve to be in Gryffindor, yet you have endured more than many wizards do in their lifetime. You have a sharp mind, yet…no, you are not a Ravenclaw._

_Why not?_ Sirius demanded in his head. _I'm plenty smart!_

Yes, yes, of course you are. Still, most certainly not Ravenclaw. Hufflepuff…no, no, definitely not. Strange…the two choices for you are the two houses that despise each other the most. I think you could do well in either of them. Hmmmm…. I think…yes, you would be best in "GRYFFINDOR!" It shouted the last word for everyone to hear. For a moment, there was silence as everyone processed the fact that a Black was in Gryffindor. Then a laugh rang out.

"Oh, your mother will be thrilled to hear about this!" Bellatrix shouted. Then the glee on her face was replaced with a furious sneer. "You traitor!"

"Oh, shut it, Bella!" Andromeda said, getting to her feet. She winked at Sirius. "Great job, Siri!"

The Gryffindor table broke into belated applause. As Sirius took his seat, he saw James give him a thumbs up.

Only a few moments later, Lily was lowering the Sorting Hat onto her head. Ahhh…Some new blood. How lovely it is to have someone free of opinions to sort.

What do you mean? Lily asked. She accepted it as natural that the Sorting Hat could read her mind and talk in her head.

Too often, the Sorting Hat replied. People come to be sorted knowing exactly where they want to be. They get rather mad at me if I put them anywhere else. But you, you have no thoughts on where you should go.

I'd like to be in Slytherin, Lily thought, a little wistfully. For Severus.

You? In Slytherin? The Sorting Hat was appalled. No, no! You belong in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Maybe you would even fit in Hufflepuff. But Slytherin? No!

Gryffindor? Lily was doubtful. I don't know…

Yes! Gryffindor! The hat was excited now. The more I see of you, the more certain I am. You belong in "GRYFFINDOR!"

Still a little stunned, Lily rose and handed the hat to the teacher. She glanced at Snape as she went to the Gryffindor table, and there was an apology in her eyes. She slipped into the seat next to Sirius, but didn't even look at him. It was clear she was still mad.

One by one, the first years were sorted into their houses. When the Sorting was done, Dumbledore stood up and said, "Welcome, all of you, to Hogwarts. There are many things I need to say to you, but I know you won't listen until you have eaten, so let the feast begin!"

"Whoa," the girl next to Lily said as the plates filled with food. "This is AMAZING!"

Another girl snorted. "It's not that much. Are you muggle-born?"

"Muggle-born?" the first girl asked.

"It just means your parents aren't magical," Lily told her. "I'm one."

"I think my dad might have been a wizard," the girl said. "But I don't know him. I'm Suzy Rowood, by the way."

"Lily Evans."

"I'm Marlene McKinnon," the other girl said. "How did you know what a muggle-born was?"

"My best friend is a half-blood," Lily said. "So I knew I was a witch even before I got my letter." Turning to the other first year girls at their table, she asked, "What about you?"

"Alice! Oh, I didn't see you! I TOLD you you'd be in Gryffindor, didn't I?" Marlene cried, embracing one of them. "This is Alice Montgomery. I grew up with her."

"You've all known about Hogwarts your whole lives?" Suzy asked, her eyes wide with awe. "That's amazing."

"I haven't," the last girl said. "I'm a muggle-born."

"What's your name?"

"Mary MacDonald."

Lily looked around at her new friends and beamed. This was going to be a great year.

About an hour later, up in the boy's dormitory in the Gryffindor tower, the boys were just introducing themselves.

"I'm Frank Longbottom. Don't wake me up early tomorrow," was all Frank contributed to the conversation before climbing into bed and going to sleep.

The other four boys all sat down on their various beds and stared at the floor.

"Look," James started. "We're really sorry about all that stuff on the boat."

"Yeah," Sirius seconded. "Are you okay, Peter?"

Peter nodded. "It's fine."

"We should have listened to you," James said, turning to Remus. "Sorry."

"Nah, it's fine," Remus said. "I could have stopped you if I wanted to. To tell the truth, it was really funny." He cracked a grin as he said that, and his whole face transformed. Before, he had looked stern and rather intimidating. But when he smiled, he looked like the mischievous 11-year-old boy he was.

"Say, do you lot want some candy? We've got some left over from the train." James asked, reaching into his robes and pulling out a Chocolate Frog.

"CHOCOLATE!" Remus fell on the candy as though he'd never seen anything so beautiful. It was the beginning of one of the greatest friendships of all time.

The years that followed were good ones, full of adventure and fun. In their second year, the Marauders discovered Remus' furry little problem and decided to become animagi. James asked Lily out exactly 2000 times and was refused exactly 2000 times. Sirius became the school's biggest flirt and by the end of 6th year had dated every girl in his year except Suzy, Alice, and Lily. Alice and Frank got huge crushes on each other, but never got the nerve to ask each other out.

They were good years, in general, for the students of Hogwarts. Their grievances amounted to no more than losing a quidditch game or not getting the grade they wanted. But around them, the wizarding world was at war.

A few years before they came to Hogwarts, Lord Voldemort had begun his campaign. He recruited Death Eaters and began to torture and kill muggles and muggle-born witches and wizards. Anyone who stood up to him was killed instantly. In 1970, war was declared. The Ministry put emergency precautions into place, and panic flew through the wizarding world like never before. Dumbledore's famous duel with Grindelwald had only been 25 years earlier. It was fresh in their minds, and there were rumors that Voldemort was even more powerful and deadly.

This had some serious ramifications for the Hogwarts students. James' parents were very senior aurors and were very close to the top of Voldemort's list of "People to Kill". The Black family, with the obvious exceptions of Andromeda and Sirius, supported Voldemort. Bellatrix and Narcissia both married Death Eaters (Rodolphus Lestrage and Lucius Malfoy) and Bella became one of the Dark Lord's inner circle.

In contrast, Andromeda married muggle-born Ted Tonks and got herself blasted off the Black family tree. In 1973, their daughter was born. They named her Nymphadora, and the other Marauders got a good laugh seeing Sirius ooh and aah over his niece. He would talk of nothing else; it was Dora this and Dora that and oh, did I tell you, Dora crawled yesterday!

It was not only Hogwarts graduates that turned to the Dark Lord. There was a group of Slytherins that everyone knew supported him. They were generally despised, but Lily loathed them more than anyone else. After all, they had stolen her best friend from her.

They couldn't even escape the war at home. Though her parents didn't know about it, Lily could think of nothing else, and each paper simply brought news of more disasters. The Marauders would often return to James' house from dinner to find that his parents were gone on a mission. Each year, they became more and more convinced that the only place they could find sanctuary from the constant fear was Hogwarts.

The summer before their 7th year, if you had asked any of the teenagers how they thought they'd be spending their last year at Hogwarts, they would have answered without hesitation. They all believed that their last year would be similar to their first six. There was going to be nothing to mar this final year of childhood.

That's what they all thought. But they were all wrong – very wrong.


	5. September, 1977

_September, 1977_

"Lily!" Alice ran towards her friend and tackled her. "How was your summer? Come on, we've got to get a compartment! What have you been up to? I've missed you so much! Why didn't you come and visit me? Where's Suzy?"

"Slow down!" Lily commanded. "Give me a second to answer!"

"Sorry," Alice said, abashed. "But I haven't seen you in so – Oh, look, there's Suzy! How'd she already get on the train? What's she saying? I CAN'T HEAR YOU, SUZY!"

"She said 'Rescue me!' Who does she needs rescuing from?" Lily wondered.

Just then, Lily's question was answered as another face appeared at the window. It was one Lily knew well. She knew exactly how many times those glasses had been broken (342 times, though only 300 of them by Lily) and how he loved to run his hands through that mop that sat on his head. Over the last six years, she had punched that face innumerable times. It was the face of James Potter. But his face wasn't what made Lily turn pale and start gasping for air. No, the cause of that was the badge that was pinned to James Potter's robes.

It was a simple looking badge, nothing impressive in itself. But Lily had one of those badges, too. But instead of saying "HEAD BOY" on it, hers said "HEAD GIRL".

"No…" she whispered. "Alice, please tell me that James Potter is not Head Boy."

"What?" Alice, who had been attempting to have a conversation with Suzy, spun around to look at Lily. "Nah, he can't be!" Lily silently pointed at the badge sparkling on James' chest. "He probably just stole it from Remus. C'mon, let's get on the train."

As the two girls made their way to the compartment, they were stopped multiple times. The first interruption was from a boy who came running out of a compartment of Slytherins.

"Lily!" he yelled. "Oi, Lily!"

The redhead sighed and turned around. She was twirling her wand as she looked with distain at her ex-best friend. "What do you want, Snape?" she asked. Her tone was not inviting. Alice had to stifle a laugh.

"Look, Lily, I'm sorry, okay? What else do you want me to say?"

"What do I want you to say? I don't want you to say anything to me, Snape. I have to deal with you because you're a prefect and I'm Head Girl, but let me make one thing very clear. We. Are. No. Longer. Friends. Give up, Snivillus. Cause I ain't changing my mind." With that Lily swept away, leaving Snape looking after her.

As they continued on their way, many people stopped Lily to congratulate her on being Head Girl or to just chat with both girls. They were popular, and almost everyone they passed greeted them with at least a wave and smile.

The Slytherins, of course, were an exception. But there was one other. Marlene McKinnon and Mary MacDonald passed by Alice and Lily as though they didn't exist. Alice and Lily acted the same way.

When they finally got to their compartment – the one they sat in every single year – they found that it had been overrun by the Marauders. There was candy strewn everywhere, mingling with joke shop products. James and Sirius were playing Exploding Snap, while Remus, Frank, and Peter watched and talked about their summers. Suzy sat in a corner, watching the boys' antics with disapproval. When she saw her friends, she beckoned for them to come to her.

"Are you Head Girl?" she demanded of Lily.

"Yes."

Suzy groaned. "I'd hoped you weren't! Potter's Head Boy!"

Lily dropped like a stone. She stared at Suzy as though she had just destroyed the last happy thing on earth. Alice sank into a seat, too, looking horrified.

"We saw the badge, but…" Lily shook her head. "I don't believe it!"

"You're sure it's not Remus', and Potter stole it?" Alice asked.

Suzy shrugged. "I suppose he might have…I guess you'll find out at the meeting."

Lily leapt to her feet. "I'd forgotten! Potter, if Dumbledore was insane enough to make you Head Boy, you do need to go to the prefect's meeting!"

James grinned. "Right. Thanks for reminding me, Evans."

They were almost civil to each other as they wended their way to the front of the train. But outside the door of the prefect's carriage, James stopped Lily.

"You know, Evans, everyone expects the Heads to go out…" he trailed off suggestively.

Lily smiled sweetly up at him "James, I think that 'everyone' would have to have an even lower IQ than they do to think that I would ever be insane enough to go out with you. I may have to put up with dealing with you this year, but that does not mean that we are going to start dating. I will never, ever, ever, be as much as a friend to you." Lily opened the door and went into the compartment. Her ponytail hit James in the face.

Lily Evan's ponytail was a thing of Hogwarts legend. At the beginning of first year, James had told her that he thought that she looked beautiful with her hair down. Since that day, the only people who had seen Lily's hair down were her roommates.

The prefects meeting went well, in Lily's opinion. Potter surprised her by talking responsibly to the prefects and not arguing with the Slytherins. He was a good public speaker, and knew how to get his message across to his audience in a way that made them eager to participate. Watching him, Lily had to admit that he might make a halfway decent Head Boy.

The beginning of that year was normal. The first years were sorted, and seemed smaller than ever. Kids talked and laughed and feasted. If the professors seemed more stressed and anxious than usual, well, there was probably some disagreement going on. In the first few days, schedules were given out, quidditch tryouts were held, and people settled into their routines.

Hogwarts is as different from most muggle schools as can be. But there is one prominent similarity. At every school, muggle or magical, there is a gossip chain. Word will spread from person to person like fire until the whole school knows. Then, no one will talk about anything else. Some of the things said are true, and others are false. On the third day of school, a new rumor went around. It was so fantastic that most people discounted it as false. But it was true.

"Potter," Lily called as she came out of Charms, right before lunch. She ran up to him and grabbed his arm. "I need to talk to you. Now." Casting a glance around at all the staring students, she added, "In private."

James shrugged and went with her into an abandoned classroom. "You gonna finally ask me out, Evans?" he asked.

"Be quiet," Lily said shortly. She was clearly agitated, pacing around the room. James, on the other hand, couldn't have been more nonchalant as he lounged against a desk. Suddenly, Lily whirled and faced him. "Look, Potter, I'm not going to go through the whole 'I hate you' harangue. You know how I feel about you. But…I was thinking a lot, this summer."

James grinned. "About me? Awww, Lils, you should have told me earlier. Of course we can go out!"

"Shut it, Potter. Just be quiet and let me talk. I don't want to do this, but I don't really have a choice." She took a deep breath. "You're Head Boy. I'm Head Girl. We're going to have to work together this year. In the past, both of us have acted like little kids. I made a lot of mistakes; I admit that. We can't do that this year. We've got to grow up.

"I've got a deal for you. You want to be more than friends; I want to be less. Can't we just get along for a little while? You quit asking me out; I don't be so prejudiced. I don't really want to be your friend, but can't we at least be friendly?"

James was thinking hard. For six years, he had tried Sirius' technique of getting girls. It hadn't worked on Lily. What she was proposing was what Remus had been trying to get James to do. In that moment, James made the best decision of his life.

"Sounds good to me," he said, standing up and holding out a hand to Lily. They shook on it. Then they went into lunch together.

The school buzzed with the news. No one knew exactly what had happened, but it was clear that something momentous had. Some people celebrated; others cried. The first years were disappointed. They had been looking forward to seeing James and Lily fight. But from that day on, the two of them got along well. Lily began to see past James' conceited exterior to the warmhearted boy inside. And James got to know a side of Lily he had only ever glimpsed. Soon, the two were friends. The school was in a state of shock.

James and Lily were in Transfiguration when, a week after term started, Dumbledore summoned them to his office. McGonagall dismissed them without comment.

"What do you suppose he wants?" James asked.

"No idea," Lily said. "I assume he'll tell us when we get there. Chocolate Frog," she told the gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office.

When they arrived at Dumbledore's office, it struck Lily that he was looking worn. "Are you doing alright, sir? You don't look to well."

Dumbledore smiled. "I am merely tired. A few days ago, I received a letter from the Minister that has given me a few sleepless nights."

"What was the letter about?" James enquired.

The headmaster sighed. "The war against Voldemort is not going well. The Ministry needs all the help it can get. They have requested my assistance. I cannot help them and remain headmaster here."

"You're leaving?" James and Lily cried at the same time. "Sir, you can't!" James added. "Without you…" he shook his head. "The school would collapse!"

"I must go," Dumbledore said. "I don't want to, but I must go. It is not that which worries me. The Minister has requested all the teachers to be 'on call', as he puts it. There is no one to take my place as headmaster."

"On call…" Lily mused. "So, basically, at any time, the Ministry could take away every teacher in this school?"

"That is what they want, yes. But some teachers cannot fight. Professor Binns, for example."

"Binns is going to be our headmaster?" James said, obviously disgusted by the thought.

"No, Professor Binns does not have the…ah…qualifications to be headmaster. Nor is it a position he wants. As you can see, I am in a bit of a quandary."

"Why are you telling us this, sir?" Lily asked. "I mean, I know it affects us, but why are you telling us now?"

"Because I need your help. There is no one else who can take my place."

For a moment, there was silence. Then, "Us?" James asked. "As heads? You've got to be kidding, sir."

"I am not." Dumbledore got up and began to pace. "I suspected that this might happen when I selected you two as heads. I believe that you can do it. But it is your decision. If you choose not to, no one will blame you. There are other options. Professor Binns could take the job, or another teacher can stay behind. If you choose to do this, it will be hard, very hard. Many of the other students will not like it. You will be bending, if not breaking, at least six laws and pretty much every school rule there is. You will have to defend and educate 280 children without adult guidance. I think that you could do it. The Ministry has promised to send three substitute teachers. They will help you, as will the other teachers, when they are here.

"Do not make this decision lightly. You must think it through, and if you decide to do it, it must be your decision, and your decision alone."

"How much time do we have to decide, sir?" James asked.

"Until the end of dinner tonight. I am sorry that it is such a short period, but no matter how you choose, there is a lot of work to be done. You are both excused from the rest of your classes. Do not speak to anyone of this."

As James and Lily left the office, both of their minds were whirling. They parted in silence, each going to someplace where they could think in peace.

"Where have you been?" Alice demanded as she, Suzy, and Lily went into dinner. "How come you weren't in class?"

Lily shook her head. "Head's stuff. I'm not allowed to talk about it."

"What did Dumbledore want?" Suzy asked. "Or are you not allowed to talk about that, either?"

"You got it!" Lily laughed. But as the Marauders entered the room, she grew silent. She didn't eat much at dinner. It was clear she was thinking hard about something. She was watching James a lot, too. He was staring at her most of the time, but that was nothing unusual.

James had to undergo a strict interrogation during dinner. Unlike Lily's friends, the Marauders wouldn't rest until they had figured out what Dumbledore had wanted and where James and Lily had been. James just ignored them and tried to come to a decision. The instant dinner was done, he went over to Lily. She had seen him coming, and went with him without a word.

The instant they were gone, the Marauders swept down on Alice and Suzy. "What's going on?" Sirius demanded. "They aren't acting normal at all!"

"We have no idea," Suzy said. "Unlike you lot, we actually respect the fact that maybe they can't tell us!"

"Blame Padfoot," Remus said. "He did most of the questioning."

The entire Great Hall was abuzz with the news. James Potter and Lily Evans had been called out of class that afternoon and hadn't returned. She had willingly gone off with him for some reason. And now their friends, who everyone knew hated each other's guts, were actually having a civilized conversation! It was shocking!

All evening, James and Lily thought of what Dumbledore had said. When they left the Great Hall, they had gone up to the Head's Common Room to talk.

"Any thoughts?" James asked when they got there. Their common room was a small circular room that looked rather similar to the Gryffindor Common Room. It had the same big chairs, the same sofas, and the same fireplace. But where the staircase that went to the dorms was in the Gryffindor Common Room, there was a door that led to another smaller room. To get into this room, you needed another password. The reasoning behind that was that if the heads wanted to, they could invite their friends into the common room, but that small room was only for the heads. It was smaller, more barren, and darker. It looked less like a place for hanging out and more like a place for business.

"Too many," Lily replied. "I've been thinking about it non-stop, but I can't come to a conclusion. I don't see how we could run the school, but I think we've got to. The Ministry hasn't given us any choice."

"Isn't it against the law?" James asked. "It seems like it should be."

Lily nodded. "It is. I looked it up as soon as Dumbledore dismissed us. But…there's no one else to do it. The Ministry can't grumble. They're the ones making us do this. I think the real question is whether or not we can do it."

"It would be hard," James said slowly. "Real hard. The rest of the students won't like it at all. A bunch of the teachers won't, either. And with Dumbledore gone, the school's a thousand times more vulnerable. We'll have to defend it, too."

"He thinks we can do it," Lily reminded him. "We've got friends. They'll help us. Most of the people who hate me like you, and vice versa. The Slytherins are going to be the problem there. But they won't really have much of a choice."

"I think we've got to do it. There's no one else."

They discussed it for a few more minutes, and finally concluded they had no choice. They would do it. It would be hard, there was a very high probability that they would fail, but they would do their best to run Hogwarts.

When they told Dumbledore, he was very pleased. "You can do this," he told them. "I know you can. I'll be here another week. On my last night, I'll make the announcement to the students. I'll tell the teachers now, of course. I'll also notify the Ministry of your decision. I suggest that you use this week to figure out the basics of what you're going to be doing. If you need any help or advice, just ask."

Lily and James took their headmaster's advice. For the next week, they used every spare second to plan. For at least three hours a day, they holed themselves up in their common room and worked.

Rumors flew throughout the school. Many people thought that Lily had finally given in and had started dating James, and they were not shy about telling their friends so. They would have told James and Lily, but no one ever saw them.

Of course, their friends were very curious about what was going on. "What are you up to?" Alice asked Lily one day. "I barely see you anymore!"

"Super-secret-heads-stuff-that-I-can't-tell-you-about-sorry-gotta-go-bye," was all Lily said before rushing off.

James was only a little more forthcoming. "You'll know by the end of the week, so shut up and leave me alone!" he yelled at Sirius, who had taken to following him and asking questions non-stop.

A few days before the end of the week, Dumbledore summoned them to his office again. "I told the teachers," he said. "There were many protests and many complaints, but in the end, they realized that this is necessary. They will all be complying with the Ministry's request.

"I also notified the Ministry of Magic. They, too, were less than happy with this compromise. But, as I reminded them, it was their orders that made this essential."

When the end of the week arrived, James and Lily skipped class. They had permission, and they had a few last minute things to wrap up. As they joined their friends for dinner, it struck everyone that they were looking very pale and far from well.

"Are you ok?" Suzy asked Lily. "You really don't look good."

"I'm fine!" Lily snapped. Then, looking horrified, she said, "I'm just a little stressed, that's all."

"Miss Evans? Mr. Potter?" Madame Pomfrey, the school nurse, who would also be leaving soon, had come up behind them. "Professor Dumbledore asked me to give this to you." She handed them each a vial of pale pink liquid. "It'll help with your nerves. Professor Dumbledore told me to tell you that you're not to take it until he starts speaking."

Looking relieved, James and Lily grabbed the vials. "Thank you!" Lily gasped in relief.

"What are you up to that you need something for your nerves?" Frank asked. When James and Lily just shook their heads, he groaned. "Oh, come on! You've been acting weird all week. You've got to tell us what's going on!"

"You'll all know by the end of dinner," Lily said. She looked distinctly green.

"Does it have something to do with what Dumbledore's going to say tonight?" Remus asked.

"Yes, it does. Now shut up and let me think in peace," James said. Normally, he was the most tolerant of friends, but that night, when he was already stressed and worried, his friends were just getting on his nerves.

When they got into the Great Hall, Lily and James surprised their friends once more. Instead of going to their usual seats, they went all the way to the front of the Gryffindor table and sat down opposite each other.

Dinner seemed to go very slowly that night, but eventually it drew to a close. Dumbledore rose, and James and Lily gulped down their potions gratefully.

"May I have your attention please?" At the sound Dumbledore's voice, all conversation stopped. "Thank you. I have a few announcements to make. First of all, I regret to say that this is the last day of this school year that I will be your headmaster."

Whispers broke out all over the hall. No one could believe it. James and Lily were the only ones who didn't react. They just sat there, looking at Dumbledore. Even after they had taken the potion, they looked stressed and wan.

"You knew!" Alice hissed at them. "That's why you've been acting weird this past week! You knew!"

"Yeah, we knew." It was clear Lily's mind was elsewhere. Across from her, James was frantically looking through index cards.

"Lily!" he whispered anxiously. "Do you have the Group C one?"

"I gave it back to you!"

"I don't have it!"

"Is this it?" Remus picked up an index card that was sitting in the middle of the table. James pounced on it.

"Thanks!"

Meanwhile, Dumbledore was trying to restore order. Once all was quiet he said, "I understand that this is a shock to you. But please remain quiet while I explain. The Ministry of Magic has requested my assistance in the war against Voldemort. I will be fighting for at least the remainder of this school year.

"They have also requested that all the teachers who are able to fight. They will be here some of the time, but never for very long. Because there are no adults who can be spared, Lily Evans and James Potter will be running the school."

Again, the hall erupted as kids expressed their disbelief. James and Lily took a deep breath and stood up.

"Quiet, please!" Lily's voice rang out, causing everyone to turn to her. The noise level didn't drop at all, however. She and James jumped up onto the top of the Gryffindor table. "I KNOW THIS IS A SURPRISE, BUT WE'RE NEVER GONNA GET ANYTHING DONE IF YOU LOT DON'T SHUT IT NOW!" she hollered. Silence fell.

"Thank you." Lily was breathing heavily, but it was imperceptible. "James and I were just as shocked as you were when we heard about this. Professor Dumbledore offered us a choice. We could run a school of 280 students and very few defenses in a time of war with a staff that changes day by day. We would have to make sure that all of you get educated and stay alive. Or, Professor Binns could."

James interrupted. "Now, Professor Binns is a very good professor, but he prefers the past to the present. He also didn't want the job. But we still could have declined the offer. We accepted because we've got to all do our part in this war. But we can't do this alone. This year, Hogwarts is going to be very different. The Founders would probably hex us all if they saw the changes we're going to make, but they're necessary."

"This past week, James and I have been organizing a system to run the school. Professor Dumbledore will be leaving tomorrow, but the rest of the teachers will be here another week. During that time, we'll be testing this new system." Lily was growing more confident. The students weren't screaming at her and James yet, anyway.

James was feeling slightly better, too. "The first part of the system is the groups. From now on, you all are going to be part of at least one group.

"The first group is Group A. They will be the heads of various things. Professor Dumbledore picked them, so if you don't like the choices, complain to him." Noticing a raised hand from the Hufflepuff table, James said, "We'll have a time for questions at the end, so unless you're like me and are going to forget your question by then, please wait." The hand went down.

"Group B will be the prefects," Lily continued. "They'll have pretty much the same duties that they have normally. There's only one big change. From now on, your prefects are your heads of house all the time. That means that even when Professor McGonagall is here, the Gryffindor prefects are the heads of Gryffindor."

"But they won't be the ones who tell us how things are going for everyone," James said. "That job is part of Group C. By the end of the week, we need to have 1 representative per house per year elected. You guys get to pick them. Just make sure that it's someone who will represent you well, because they're going to be your voice."

"Group D is the teachers," Lily continued. "Not the adults, but the kids. We've asked all the teachers who are leaving to fight to give us two lists. One is the kids whom they feel would be best at teaching their subject. The other is a list of kids that we should not, under any circumstances, let teach their subjects. Being part of Group D is completely voluntary. As long as you're not on the second list, you can volunteer to teach any subject. We'll interview you, and we'll pick the best choices. The rest will be our backups.

"We aren't going to just have one teacher per subject. The schedule will have to be arranged each day so that each member of Group D will be able to get to their own classes as well. Because of that, we're going to have quite a few teachers per subject. When the actual teachers are here, they'll teach their own subject."

"One more thing on the teachers," James put in. "We're going to take older students first. Unless you're a 7th year, you'll be teaching kids younger than you. Since 7th years are the oldest, we're only going to take the best to teach them. They'll have to teach things they've just learned."

"I expect you think you're the best," a Slytherin sneered, rising to his feet. "Are you even going to give the rest of us a chance? I bet you're just going to give Gryffindors all the power, and leave the rest of us with nothing."

James and Lily had known that this might happen, but having it actually happen was startling. Lily didn't know what to say. James came to her rescue.

"Look," he said. "We know we're both 7th year Gryffindors. But we're doing everything we can to balance that." No longer was James friendly. His voice could have frozen water. He was dead serious. "7th year Gryffindors will not have a member of Group C. Prefects from all four houses will have an equal voice. Yes, when it comes down to it, we make the big decisions. If you don't like that, don't take it out on us. We didn't ask for this to be thrust on us. If we had our way, if Voldemort never existed, if the Ministry hadn't asked for Dumbledore and the rest of our teachers, we would not be running this school. Go ask Dumbledore why he chose us. Ask the rest of the teachers why they backed his decision. Ask Binns why he didn't decide to rule the school. Ask the Ministry why they had to take every one of the teachers. Ask Voldemort why he had to make the Ministry's decision necessary. We're doing this because we have to." James glared at the boy until he sat back down.

"Thank you," Lily said, her calm returning. "Back to what we were saying. Group E is the last group. It contains the entire student body. However, it's divided into groups by year and house. For example, I would be part of Group EG7, because I'm in Gryffindor (G) and I'm a 7th year (7)."

"This is just so that we can keep track of you," James clarified. "Eventually, we'll get to know all of you individually, but at the moment, you're all just names on a piece of paper."

"Once a week," Lily said. "Groups A, B, and C will meet to go over everything. On the weekends, there will be make up classes and training sessions for Group D."

"A sign explaining what the groups are and who's in which group will be posted in your common rooms by tomorrow." James and Lily glanced at each other, then Lily asked,

"Any questions?"

"Who's in Group A?" a 5th year Hufflepuff boy asked.

"Sorry," Lily said. "We've got to check with them first. You'll all know by tomorrow, though."

"What are the departments that Group A's going to be in charge of?" a 6th year Ravenclaw girl asked.

"I don't know them all off the top of my head," James answered. "But they're things like Healing and working with Group D."

There were a few more questions, none of which were difficult to answer. When they were done, James pulled out a flashcard and glanced over it. "Another change is the schedule. If any of you are like my friends and me, you skip breakfast to sleep in pretty often. Well, I'm sorry, but you aren't going to be able to do that anymore. At 8 o'clock sharp, we need all of you in here. That's when we'll make any announcements."

Lily pulled out her wand and waved it. Behind her, seven whiteboards, numbered one thru 7, appeared, floating in midair. They were divided into periods, but other than that, there was nothing on them. "Every morning, these will be up here. They will have your schedules for the day. You'll be taking classes with your whole year. We'll let you know who's teaching what."

"Most of the day will be normal," James explained. "But after dinner, there are a few more changes. Curfew will be at 9:00 now." Protests broke out all over the hall. Lily held out a hand.

"We know that that's earlier than the current curfew, but it's necessary. You can still be in your common rooms or dorms, but no one other than Groups A and B will be allowed to be in the halls. It's for your safety. We can't risk something happening.

"Before curfew, though, we're going to be having a study hall in here. Because of the lack of actual teachers, there are going to be some things you don't understand. All the teachers, actual and student, will be here. We'll help you with anything you need. You don't have to come, but if you have questions, that would be the time to ask them."

"But it's not just for studying," James said. "That would be boring. We'll have games; you can hang out; and if you've got any ideas, we'll add them. That doesn't mean we'll add anything, though. Keep it appropriate."

"Which brings us to our next point," Lily said. "We may be teenagers, we may be students, we may be your friends, but that doesn't mean we're going to let you get away with anything. We've been given a responsibility here, and we're not going to abuse it."

"I'm not going to expel you for pranking someone," James continued. "I'm more likely to give you a prize if the prank is decent. But if you think you can get away with hurting someone, or bullying, or anything that would normally be completely against the rules, think again. I may be a prankster, but now I'm also one of the heads. And we're not going to go easy on you just because you're one of our classmates."

Lily nodded. "And one more thing. If any of you feel that something isn't working right, that someone's being mean, that there's something we need to check up on, don't hesitate to come and tell us. If you want, you can have your representative do it, but we don't want you to forget that we're still part of the student body. We're here for you. Any more questions?"

There were a few, and then they were done. James and Lily stepped down from the table with evident relief. As they made their way out of the Great Hall, many students came over to talk to them. They answered more questions, accepted compliments and congratulations, and lived with the jealous glares and sneers of the Slytherins. It was almost an hour later when they finally got to the Heads Common Room.

"Whew!" Lily collapsed on a sofa. "Thank god that's over!"

James had just opened his mouth to reply when the door burst open and their friends poured in. They stood there for a moment, staring at their new heads.

"Are you insane?" Sirius finally demanded. "What were you thinking, saying yes to Dumbledore? What was he thinking, suggesting it to you?"

"Look-" James began hotly, but Suzy interrupted.

"There's no way you guys can do this. The Slytherins aren't going to make things easy for you, and there's a lot of bitterness out there. People thinking they would do a better job."

"It's not that it's you two," Alice said. "Though I wish you had told us earlier. It's just that, well, what you're trying to do is impossible. There's no way two teenagers can run a school, protect it, and get their own work done."

"It's not going to be two teenagers," Lily said. They stared at her. "At least, I – we – hope it isn't."

"What are you talking about?" Frank demanded.

James laughed. "Who did you guys think Group A is?"

"I'll give you three hints," Lily said, smiling. "One, they're all in this room. Two, we didn't really tell the truth about Group A. It's not the heads of departments; it's the people we can trust with everything. Three, Dumbledore may have named the kids in Group A, but it was clear who we wanted when we talked to him."

There was silence. Then, "Us?" Alice whispered. "Us, Group A?"

"Yep," James said. "You guys are on equal footing with us in this."

"Here are your assignments. We can change them, if you don't like them. But I think Dumbledore did a great job. He actually did do this bit." Lily held out a piece of parchment. It looked like this:

Group A

Lily Evans Head

James Potter Head

Alice Montgomery Healing

Frank Longbottom Healing

Sirius Black Entertainment & Security

Remus Lupin Teachers & Security

Peter Pettigrew Representatives & Relations

Suzy Rowood House Elves & Security

"House elves?" Suzy said. "Please tell me you're kidding."

"You can always change," Lily said. "But…I think you'd be good at it. They like you. You're always really nice to them and treat them like equals. Dumbledore said they actually requested you."

While Suzy mulled over that, Remus said, "The rest of the school's going to go crazy when they see that list. They'll say that you just picked your friends."

"But that's the beauty of it," Lily said. "Dumbledore made this list. He'll be here long enough for us to send all complaints to him."

"I'll do it," Suzy announced. "I like the house elves." Lily grinned at her.

"Why am I representatives and relations?" Peter asked. "I'm no good at talking with people."

"But you hear things no one else does," James said. "Actually, what you'll be doing is making sure that the Reps are doing their job, checking up on their info, stuff like that. You'll have to talk to them a bit, but we'll handle most of it."

"Also, the Ministry likes you," James said. "Your parents work there and, unlike mine, actually agree with most of what they do. If we need to send someone to talk to the Ministry, that someone will be you."

"Why are both Frank and I healing?" Alice asked. "You don't really need two people for that."

"Oh, yes you do!" Everyone looked at Remus, surprised. He shrugged. "I know how hard healing is. I've been in St. Mungo's a bunch."

"Your sick mum?" Suzy asked, hiding a snigger.

"Ummm…" Remus hesitated. "Guys, there's something you don't know about me."

"Oh, please," Alice said. "We've known since 4th year."

The Marauders stared at her. "Is it that obvious?" Remus asked.

"No," Lily said. "But you're forgetting who I was best friends with. He was so obsessed with his stupid theory that he was getting on my nerves. So I did some research, intending to prove him wrong." She laughed. "You can imagine my surprise when I found out he was right!"

"Did you tell him?" Sirius demanded.

Lily gave him a look that clearly said, _Really? You think I'm that dumb?_ "Of course not. His ego was big enough. _I_ wasn't the one who let him find out." She glared at Sirius until he ducked his head in shame.

"How'd you two find out?" Frank asked Alice and Suzy.

"We helped Lily with her research," Alice replied at the same time Suzy said accusingly, "How did _you_ find out?"

"Oh, hmmm, I don't know. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that my roommates were sneaking out of my dorm every full moon? I caught them one night and made them tell me."

"Do you know about us, too?" James asked.

"Of course we do!" Lily said.

"We know all your secrets," Suzy informed them. "We figured if we ever needed to blackmail you, we'd better have some stuff ready."

"So we watched you and found out about the Marauders' Map, James' invisibility cloak, all your secret passages, and…" Alice turned to her friends. "Am I forgetting anything?"

"We knew about all your pranks at least an hour in advance," Lily told them.

"That's how you got out of the way all those times!" Sirius exclaimed.

They stayed up late that night, talking and planning the rest of the year. By the time they retired to bed, they had the beginnings of an evacuation plan, half of a hand signing language, and had decided that they were going to have two sets of everything. One, everyone would know. A certain group of Slytherins (including Snape and Avery) wouldn't know the second. They had named that group the DEWs (Death Eater Wannabes) because that was what they were.

James also taught them all a very nifty spells Dumbledore had given him. It was the magical equivalent of a PA system. It allowed whoever was using it to make an announcement the whole school could hear.

Then Lily set up a complex magical system that would allow the students to use their wands like cell phones. There were nine lines: one for each group and a non-DEW version for Groups B-E.

They all went to sleep content. They knew that tough times would be ahead, but they knew that, together, they could deal with it. They would run Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


	6. Week One

_Week 1_

The next morning, Alice woke up with a sense that something big had happened. She just couldn't remember what. She yawned and rolled over. As she did so, she noticed that Lily's bed was empty. It wasn't unusual for Lily to wake up early, but Alice felt like Lily's absence had something to do with what had happened.

"Alice?" Suzy whispered. "Are you up?"

"Uh-huh," Alice mumbled, not quite awake. Blinking, she sat up and stretched.

"We should probably get going. We need to be at the Great Hall in half an hour!"

"Can't we just skip breakfast today?" Alice asked. "I'm exhausted. We went to bed so late last night-" She froze, remembering why they had been up so late the night before. "Merlin's elbow!" She scrambled out of bed and got ready for the day.

The atmosphere was very tense as the students assembled in the Great Hall. The teachers were all rather doubtful, and many of the students had decided that Dumbledore had really gone round the bend. Stress levels were high as Group A took their seats at the Gryffindor table.

"Where is everyone?" Sirius hissed.

Two very different groups of people were missing. The Slytherin table was scarcely populated as all the DEWs and many of their friends boycotted. James and Lily weren't there, either. They were in their common room, rushing to make sure they were ready.

"But if we give the third years Transfiguration third period, then we've got to change the fifth year's schedule completely!" Lily cried. They had been up for an hour, trying to plan the schedule. In their common room, there were seven boards that corresponded exactly with the ones in the Great Hall. They had gotten the idea from the tables in the kitchen and Great Hall, which worked the same way.

"Why don't we just switch Transfiguration with Defense?" James suggested.

"The first years have Defense then!" Agitated, Lily paced up and down. Suddenly, she stopped. "Wait." James did as she pointed to each of the boards, thinking. "Yes, that works! If we move 6th year Charms to third period, then we can put their Defense 5th period, which lets us switch 1st year Defense and Charms!"

"So then we can switch 3rd year Transfiguration and Defense!" James high-fived Lily. "You're brilliant!"

She grinned. "Thanks! Now all we've got to do is convince the rest of the school of that. Come on, it's almost eight."

They hurried down to the Great Hall and barely made it in time. The clocks were just chiming eight as they got to there.

"Where have you been?" Suzy hissed. "You're late!"

"Sorry," Lily whispered as she and James climbed back onto the top of the Gryffindor table. "Good morning, everyone!" she called out. "May we have your attention for a few minutes?"

"No!" someone from the Slytherin table yelled. They were ignored.

"Alright, so today is basically our test day," James said. "The signs are up in the Common Rooms, telling who's in what group. If your name was down under Group D, which is the teachers, it doesn't mean you have to teach. All it means is that you were recommended by a teacher. If you're on that list but not interested, just cross yourself off. If you're not on the list and interested, just write your name down. We need all the teachers we can get."

"Please do that as soon as you can," Lily said. "Because today, the actual teachers are going to be conducting interviews and choosing people to teach their subject. Then, starting tomorrow, they'll be training you."

"For those of you who didn't check and see who's in Group A," James said. "Remus Lupin will be in charge of Group D. He'll be at all the interviews and training sessions. There will be make-up sessions on the weekends and during the daily study halls for those who miss classes because they're teaching."

"Being part of Group D is a privilege and a responsibility. I will be helping James and Remus supervises the student teachers, so don't sign up if you aren't serious unless you want a taste of my temper. I've got a lot of things that I need to do, and I'm not going to be in a good mood with anyone who wastes my time. Is that clear?" There was silence as Lily glared at everyone. No one wanted to get on the wrong side of her temper.

"Great!" Sirius and Remus looked at each other and rolled their eyes. A hyper and punch-drunk James was not a good thing. "So, we're going to start with Hufflepuffs today! Hufflepuffs, come on up and check your schedules! While they're doing that, are there any questions?"

"Why is Group A just your best friends?" a fifth year Ravenclaw asked.

"For questions concerning who's in Group A," Lily said. "Please talk to Dumbledore. He made the assignments. He'll be in his office for another hour."

"You're just avoiding the question!" another Ravenclaw yelled.

"Yeah! Answer us!" And the whole Great Hall erupted in complaints and insults. James and Lily fruitlessly tried to calm them down. They tried everything, including Dumbledore's purple fireworks trick. Nothing worked until their friends began to silently shoot spells at people, freezing them, calming them down, and (in Sirius' case) hexing them.

Finally, the Great Hall grew quiet. Lily took a deep breath and said, "Once again, we did not choose Group A. We told Dumbledore what we wanted it to be, and he chose the people and gave out the assignments. Please address all your complaints on that subject to him."

"We get that you guys aren't happy with this," James said. "I would be mad, too, if it were me. But we really don't have a choice. We've got to do this. If it makes it any better, think of it as our contribution to the war."

"And remember that we'd like you all to be at the study hall tonight. Now, Slytherins, would you come up to see your schedules for the day?" Lily requested. "I know a bunch of you are missing, which is understandable for the first day. But if it becomes a continued thing, there are going to be consequences."

"Of course there are," a Slytherin 5th year mumbled as she looked at her schedule. "Everyone knows that Gryffindors hate Slytherins."

"Oh, shut it, will you?" Everyone in the room turned to look at Mafalda Hoprick, a sixth year Hufflepuff. "I know this is new and everything, but come on! We're stuck with this, so stop grumping about it."

"I wouldn't expect you to understand, Mudblood," the Slytherin sneered. "You wouldn't understand that this is the worst thing that could possibly happen to this school. After all, the first time you heard of Hogwarts was when you got your letter."

"Detention," James and Lily said in unison. "That is completely unacceptable," Lily continued. "And no head of Hogwarts has ever said that calling someone that name is appropriate. Ten points from Slytherin and a detention."

The Slytherin glared, and then turned back to her friends, whispering. James and Lily exchanged a look. It was clear they were going to have a lot of work to do to.

"I think that actually went very well," Suzy said as they left the Great Hall. "As well as could be expected, I mean."

They all stared at her. "Are you crazy?" Sirius said. "There was a riot in there, and you think it went _well_?"

"Think about it," she said. "We knew the Slytherins weren't going to like it at all and that a bunch of the others wouldn't either, but you two" – nodding towards James and Lily – "handled it well. Hoprick is popular. If she's resigned to it, all her friends will follow. And the first years are really looking forward to this year, I think. They never had Dumbledore as head, so they don't have the expectations the rest of the students do. If we play our cards right, they'll really like us, and once they're won, the only people who won't like us are the Slytherins. And hoping they'll like us is a little unreasonable." Then, seeing her friends' stares, she added, "What?"

"You're a genius," Frank said. "An absolute genius. I never could have thought of all that."

Suzy shrugged, blushing slightly. "It's just common sense."

"Which the rest of us lack," Sirius said, slipping his arm around her shoulder. She began to shrug it off, but a look from Lily stopped her. _We're friends with them now,_ the look said. _Deal with it. _

It was a day of pure chaos. Dumbledore was mobbed as he left the school; many students had last minute questions to ask and complaints to make. He patiently answered them all, and then he was gone.

The other adults found the day just as difficult. They, too, were subject to many complaints and pleas for help. Some of them had trouble answering, as they agreed with the students, but others, Professor McGonagall in particular, wholeheartedly supported James and Lily.

"I must say, Minerva, I don't like this at all," Horace Slughorn, the Potions master, said. "Potter and Evans are good students, but no student could do what they are attempting. I don't know what Albus is playing at, leaving them in charge!"

"Albus knows exactly what he is doing, Horace. I have complete faith in him."

"Yes, yes, of course," Slughorn said, panting slightly to keep up as McGonagall walked briskly up a staircase. "But do you really think that it is wise to be putting so many lives in the hands of teenagers?" Seeing his colleague's incredulous stare, he quickly added, "Not that they aren't capable, but still…"

"Horace." McGonagall, still several steps above Slughorn, turned and sent the full power of her glare at him. "Albus believes that Potter and Evans can do this. I agree, it is not what I would wish. But there is nothing we can do about it. The Ministry's directions were clear: we are all to go work for them, and they take no responsibility for anything that happens here. In other words, they are incompetent nincompoops who are desperate and quite willing to place the blame for their mistakes on others!" Slughorn had never seen her so worked up.

"Really, Minerva," he said tentatively. "That's rather near treason. The last thing we need is for you to be hauled to Azkaban!"

"I wouldn't put it past the Ministry. How any of them ever got elected, I have no clue!"

"Still, you must admit that even Albus would have a hard time running our nation in these hard times."

"Albus! Don't even mention him to me! I've never seen him so worried in my life, and yet he won't do a thing! If I've told him once, I've told him a million times that what he needs to do is start his own force, a group of people who aren't tied to the Ministry, who actually want to fight. Because if you ask me, the Ministry won't last a week without us." McGonagall was scaring Slughorn just a bit. He hadn't realized that she could lose control like that.

He didn't show it, though. All he said was, "We'd best hurry, if we want to get to our next classes on time."

McGonagall wasn't the only teacher who was furious about the way the Ministry had been handling things. It was said that when Flitwick heard the news, he was so shocked that the Ministry would put so much pressure on students that he fell off the chair he was standing on. Amira Gruanday, the Divination teacher, was heard to say that it was clear that the Ministry was completely disregarding everything that their "Inner Eyes" were telling them. All of the teachers had a high opinion of Lily and thought that if any student had to run the school, she was a good choice. But James was a different matter.

"He's a nice enough boy, I suppose," said Professor Kettleburn, who taught Care of Magical Creatures. "But rather…irresponsible. I wouldn't want him to be in charge of me, that's for sure."

"He's done a very good job as Quidditch Captain," McGonagall pointed out. "Never missing a practice and doing a very good job of scheduling them. He's the reason we won the Cup last year."

"Yes, well, we all have our passions. But still, Minerva, the boy has never turned in three consecutive pieces of homework to me! He and Black are the last people I would want in charge of the school!"

"Rufus, Dumbledore knew what he was doing when he put Potter and Evans in charge."

"And that's the other thing! Those two never have been able to get along! He's always asking her out or mooning over her and paying no attention to anything else! She hates him, and with good reason!"

"They've been getting along much better lately. He's stopped harassing her, and she's stopped hexing him. If you've got more complaints, tell it to the Minister. You'll see him soon enough."

"The Minister? Minerva, he didn't put Potter in charge!"

"No, that was Dumbledore, who, in case you've forgotten, is the best headmaster this school has ever seen. Now, if you'll excuse me, Rufus, I have some students to interview."

"One question more, Minerva. Quite honestly, do you think that they can do this? It's impossible!"

"Rufus, I have been told that it was impossible for me to attend Hogwarts, that it was impossible for me to become top of my class, that it is impossible that You-Know-Who is alive, impossible that people continue to die. And yet all those things are so. Nothing is impossible. They'll be fine." As she turned away, Kettleburn thought he heard her whisper, "They have to be."

By the time classes were over, everyone was exhausted, students and teachers alike. During the study hall, another semi-riot that started when a Slytherin boy tried to start a petition that Gryffindors shouldn't be in charge. Though many people agreed with him, it was clear that he just wanted all the power for Slytherin. The hall erupted into shouts and jinxes. It took the combined efforts of the prefects and teachers to get things under control.

The next few days were much of the same; chaos reigned and it was all Lily and James could do to keep order. But by their fourth day, things had settled into something resembling the schedule. Most of the students had become resigned; it was only the Slytherins who complained. As Suzy had predicted, the younger students soon grew to love the new schedule. No matter how busy things got, James and Lily always had time to stop and show a first year where the Transfiguration classroom was or help someone out of a trick step.

"Good evening." James and Lily were standing on a table at the front of the Heads Common Room. "We don't know all your names yet," Lily continued. "So we're just going to call out the positions. Please tell us your name when we do."

It was the first meeting of Groups A-D. The Marauders, Alice, and Suzy sat right in front of James and Lily. Behind them were the prefects, arranged by house and year. Behind them were the 27 students selected to represent their year and house, and the students who were training to be teachers sat in the back. Surprisingly, everyone was there, even the Slytherins. James and Lily had made it very clear that this meeting was mandatory. If you didn't come, you got no say. No one wanted to be left out.

When they were done taking attendance, James said, "Okay. Basically, the people in this room are going to be running the school. Yes, Lily and I are in charge, but you all have a say, too. We're going to be meeting once a week, every Sunday night. If you can't be here for some reason, let us know. Having a lot of homework is not an excuse. If you don't agree to those rules, you can leave now. Is that clear?" He glared at everyone. No one budged. "Great! Now, let's get down to business."

"First of all, are there any questions?" Lily asked. "We're not going to hide anything from any of you."

"Are we still going to have Quidditch?" a third year Ravenclaw asked anxiously.

James gave her his _are-you-kidding-me_ look and said, "Of course were still going to have Quidditch. I'm team captain! Did you think I would get rid of it? But I just want to warn everyone who's not in Gryffindor: just because I have other responsibilities, that does not mean that any of you have a chance of winning the cup!"

"That's what you think!" the Hufflepuff team captain yelled. Everyone laughed, and suddenly things were a lot less tense.

"Any more questions?" Lily asked. "No? All right, then. The main thing we're going to be working on for the next few months is security."

"The next few _months_?" a first year Gryffindor asked. "That's a long time."

"It's a big project," Remus pointed out. "With Dumbledore gone, Hogwarts is a lot more vulnerable. There are almost 300 students here, and You-Know-Who has it in for a lot of us because of our relatives."

"So we're supposed to put tons of work into this just because your mummy and daddy got on the wrong side of the Dark Lord?" Avery, the 7th year Slytherin Representative, asked.

About ¾ of the people present (all but the Slytherins) turned and glared at him incredulously. Finally, the third year Ravenclaw who had asked about Quidditch said, "I'm muggle-born. My parents were killed when Death Eaters attacked my hometown last week."

"My dad's an auror," a fifth year Hufflepuff said quietly. "He just joined, in honor of my mum. Before that, she was the one who fought. She was one of the best. But You-Know-Who came to our house a few months ago. My dad was taking me out for ice cream, but my mum and my little sister were at home. He killed them both." His voice broke as he said, "My sister was three. We had just adopted her a year or two ago; her parents were best friends with my parents, so when You-Know-Who got them, she came to live with us. She was the cutest, most innocent little girl you can imagine, always so curious about everything. And You-Know-Who killed her and my mum."

Anabel Frest, a Hufflepuff prefect said, "I think most of you already know my story. But…well, I had a sister. A twin sister. Amelia. We were really, really close. And then," her voice broke, and she began to cry. "Then, last year…she got a boyfriend." Alice went over to her and put her arm around Anabel, glaring at Avery. This was a story that everyone at Hogwarts knew. "We always tried to be open-minded, but…but this time we took it a bit far. Her boyfriend…he killed her. There was no proof, but no one else could have done it."

"You try anything like that this year, Avery," Sirius said, pointing his wand at the Slytherin threateningly. Everyone had liked the Frest sisters, and Amelia's death had sent the whole school into mourning for months. "And you'll be out of here faster than you can say _Avada Kedavra_. Get it?"

Avery merely glared.

"That goes for everyone, no matter what house you're in," Lily said. "Hogwarts is supposed to be a place where everyone can learn safely. That's why we all have to fight You-Know-Who, no matter what our personal feelings are. If the Ministry of Magic was attacking us, we'd respond the same way."

"Yeah, right," Avery murmured under his breath, but other than that, he let it drop.

"Okay, back to business," James said. "We need to have a few plans in case of an attack so that we're not too predictable. There are actually quite a few routes out of here-"

"We're just going to give the school over to the Death Eaters?" Anabel interrupted, incredulous.

James snorted. "Yeah, right. Of course not!" He couldn't imagine the Death Eaters invading the school, destroying all the places he loved. In a slightly calmer voice he repeated, "No. Everyone's going to get a choice, but if they're of age and want to, they can fight."

"What if we're underage and want to fight?" a third year boy asked.

"We'll see about that later," Lily said. "We'll have to get permission from your parents or guardians, and that won't be easy."

The boy nodded, disappointment written all over his face. "My mum'll never let me," he mumbled.

"We'll do our best to convince all the adults that this is safe," James started, but he was interrupted before he could get any farther.

"Safe?" A Hufflepuff girl leapt to her feet. "Fighting Death Eaters who spend all their time dueling isn't safe!"

"That's the first thing we're going to do," Sirius said. Everyone turned to look at him. He was lounging against the fireplace, looking as cocky as ever. But for perhaps the first time in his life, he was being serious. "We've got to train everyone to be able to defend themselves. We've got to make our own army."

"Army?" the Hufflepuff girl whispered. Then her voice rose hysterically. "Are you insane? Next you'll be saying you want the first years to go up against You-Know-Who himself!"

"We hope it won't come to that," Suzy said. "But they have to be able to fight Death Eaters in case of an attack."

"What are the odds of them actually attacking?" a nerdy looking boy from Ravenclaw asked.

"Fifteen to one towards," Remus immediately replied. Everyone stared at him, incredulous. "What?" he asked, fidgeting uncomfortably. "I was curious." When the staring didn't cease, he began to flush. "It's just an approximation…"

"You're brilliant, Moony, you hear that? Downright genius." Sirius shook his head in disbelief. Why such a mastermind would actually direct his talents to schoolwork was beyond him.

"Remus' brilliance aside," Lily said, drawing the attention back to the front of the room. "It's a very real threat, and we need to be prepared. Now, James and I have about a million ideas each on how to prepare everyone, but we'd like to hear some of your ideas, too. Remember, we need to give everyone basic defense skills, and we'd like to have an army of some sorts so we can keep the Death Eaters out."

"And," James added. "We also would like to set up some sort of alarm system so we can get a bit of warning. Any thoughts?" A hand went up in the back, and James called on them.

"Why don't we have specialized units?" the boy asked. "Like, one for helping people evacuate, one for trying to keep the Death Eaters out, one for fighting them as they come in, one for protecting the fighters, and stuff like that."

"That's a great idea!" James said as Lily wrote it down.

There were no more suggestions that night, but everyone present was given a bit of homework. "We need you all to think about this," Lily said. "Talk to your friends, and, when we meet again, we'd like each Rep to have gotten some opinions. Any questions?" She scanned the room for hands, but there were none. "Meeting dismissed."

People filed out, and soon only Group A was left. "Did you make that up?" Sirius asked the instant they had the room to themselves.

"Make what up?" Remus asked, confused.

"The odds of a Death Eater attack," Alice clarified.

"No," he said, affronted. "I calculated it on Wednesday."

"Where did you get the numbers?" Lily asked. "I mean, there are so many things to take into consideration."

"A lot of it was guessing," Remus said. "But…" And they were off in a long, technical mathematics discussion that lasted until-

"Oi! You two!" Sirius yelled. "Can you shut it? Some of us are trying to think!"

They ignored him.

"We do have homework," Alice pointed out. Instantly, Remus and Lily flew to their bags and ripped their books out. Within 30 seconds, they were silently doing their homework, as far from the others as they could be.

"How did she do that?" Sirius demanded.

"You just have to know how to manipulate them," Suzy said with a smirk. "I could do the same to you, or James, or Alice, or Frank, or Peter. It's easy!"

"If you've got two brain cells to rub together!" Remus yelled.

Sirius spent a good three minutes trying to figure out if he had just been insulted.


	7. Some People Just Don't Get It

_In which the Marauders follow tradition and Lily gets mad._

"POTTER!" The portrait slammed shut as Lily stalked into the Gryffindor Common Room. Everyone in there froze. The first years looked scared; they had never seen Lily look so furious. The others, however, ranged from slightly annoyed to very amused. They had lived through versions of this almost every day in previous years. Now, they just sat back and prepared to be entertained.

In the corner of the common room, the Marauders jumped and lay down their Exploding Snap cards. James sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking resigned. Remus just gave the others a look that said, quite clearly, "I told you so" and opened his book. Peter shrank into his chair and tried to make himself disappear while Sirius attempted to sneak up to his dorm (a brilliant plan since the staircase was on the other side of the room and Lily was bearing down on them with alarming speed).

"Oh, no," Lily said, sickly sweet. Though her mouth curved up in what could be called a smile, no one was stupid enough to take that as a good sign. Her eyes were throwing sparks and her whole body radiated fury. The Gryffindors had seen Lily mad before, but never this livid. This anger was not just her usual just-get-out-of-my-way-Potter-and-for-Merlin's-sake-stop-asking-me-out! She was far madder than that. The whole house leaned in to listen. "I'm going to have a nice little chat with _all_ of you." Lily drew her wand and flourished it, causing Sirius to fly back into his chair.

"Ow!" Sirius said, sitting up and rubbing his back. "What's the matter with you, Lily?"

Behind her, one sixth year bet another that she would start hexing the Marauders within ten minutes. "Aw, no way," the other one said. "It's gonna be less than that. Two minutes."

"You're on!" the first one whispered. Normally, Lily would notice and swoop down upon them, for she hated it when people bet on her. It was a hatred imbedded in her from years of people betting on when she would give into James. But this was not a normal day. She had forgotten she had an audience, forgotten that there was anyone in the room besides her and the four boys cowering before her.

"What is the matter with me?" Lily repeated, astounded. "I'll tell you what's the matter with me, Black! But first, answer a question for me, all of you. WHY IS HALF OF SLYTHERIN HOUSE IN THE HOSPITAL WING WITH A FEVER THAT IS NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE TO CURE OR BOILS THAT YOU CAN'T GET RID OF WITHOUT A TON OF MATERIALS THAT WE DON'T HAVE?"

Sirius burst out laughing. "Is that what happened?" he said when he caught his breath. "Oh, that's great! Which happened to Regulus?"

That was a mistake. Lily jabbed her wand in his direction and he found himself choking on his own breath. The first sixth year sighed and passed a sickle to the second. Lily just stood there, watching Sirius struggle, until Remus called her back to her senses. "Lily? He's going to die if you leave him like that."

Throwing a glare at him, she reluctantly undid the charm. "Like that, Black? Want some more? I can do it. I will do it, and with glee. Just let me know if you want more."

James looked at her with concern. "Lily?" he said. "Are you okay? You're acting like…like a Death Eater."

She turned to him and dug her wand into his chest. Then she seemed to realize exactly what she had just done. Turning to Sirius, she said, "Don't provoke me like that again." That was the closest he would get to an apology.

"I won't," Sirius swore fervently as he got to his feet, massaging his throat. "What's gotten into you? We've pranked Slytherins like that constantly for the past six years and you never cared!"

"Look," she said. "This isn't like those last six years. This year, we're in charge. So I'm giving you all a month in detention."

"WHAT?" They were all shocked. "Lily, you can't do that!" James protested. "Even in a normal year, that would only be a week in detention! And this isn't a normal year; we're ruling the school! You can't give us detention!"

"Oh, is that why you did it? Because you thought that just because you were running the school that you wouldn't get punished? Well, think again! Our first priority here is to keep these kids safe, and not just from Death Eaters. They're really safe if you lot are hexing them every time I turn my back for a moment! Those kids are going to be in the hospital wing for a month at the least, and that's if we're lucky. And while they're there, Alice and Frank and Suzy and I are going to have to be there too, taking care of them. That means we won't be teaching or training teachers or healers or ANYTHING!

"But that's not the biggest problem. If we're going to get through this year, the kids have to trust us. They have to know that we're not going to be biased against the other houses or years because we're all 7th year Gryffindors! I have been working my tail off trying to find ways to make everything fair. We're finally getting kids to start thinking that maybe, just maybe, they can trust us to do what's best for _everyone_, not just for us. They're thinking that maybe there's a slight chance that they'll actually have a voice here, that this might just work. And then you all went and hexed half of Slytherin house. Do you have any idea how bad that looks?

"This is bigger than you lot just bullying the Slytherins. This is bigger than the fact that you _always _start the year with a big prank on the Slytherins, or the fact that Gryffindors always hate Slytherins and vice versa. The rules are different this year. _Everything_ is different this year. I'll talk to you later about the detentions." She turned on her heel and stormed out of the common room.

Everyone was silent. Then the Marauders rose from their seats and followed Lily out the portrait hole.

"We've got to do something. Lily's right, we shouldn't have pranked them." Surprisingly, it was Sirius who spoke. He had been the one who had suggested the prank in the first place, and the one who had been the most confident that what they were doing was right.

"I should have stopped you guys," Remus said. He looked miserable. It had been a full moon only two nights ago, and he still wasn't feeling very well. The shame weighing down on him was only one more weight.

"No," James said. "It was our fault for making you do it. I wonder if Lily would let us into the Hospital Wing?"

"I doubt it," Remus said. "She won't want us near the Slytherins."

"Well, we can at least make sure they have all the time and supplies they need to help them." Still discussing what they could do to ease their guilt, the four boys wandered to the Heads Common Room.

Meanwhile, in the Hospital Wing, Alice was calming a thrashing first year while Frank rifled through books trying to find some spell that would help and Suzy gave an angry sixth year a Calming Draught. When Lily ran in, still fuming, they all looked up. "Did you find them?" Alice asked.

"Oh, I found them," Lily said. "It wasn't hard. Guess where they were?"

They looked at each other and shrugged. "Transfig room?" Frank guessed.

"I wish!" Lily threw herself down in the one empty chair. "They were in the Gryffindor common room, playing Exploding Snap."

Frank gaped at her. "Some people just don't get it, do they?" he murmured.

Suzy was appalled. "What the heck? They just sent, like, 30 kids to the Hospital Wing, and they're playing _Exploding Snap_? What's wrong with them?"

"Did you hex them?" a 5th year Slytherin boy asked eagerly.

Lily grimaced. "I actually almost killed Black."

You could hear the gasps from every corner of the room. "Really?" Frank asked, astonished.

"Lily," Alice cried reproachfully. "We don't need another patient in here!"

"Oh, don't worry," Lily replied. "He's fine. He just kept cracking jokes and it just got to me. I didn't really know what I was doing."

"Did you yell at them like you did last year?"a second-year asked.

With a wry grin, Lily confessed, "I yelled at them worse than I ever have."

"Really?" the second-year said, wide-eyed. "Cause I remember last year when Potter asked you out you were _really_ mad."

Laughing, Lily went over to his bed. "I was madder than that," she said.

"Why?" The simple question came from a 6th year whom Lily recognized as a prefect. "Why do you care about what they did to us? You're in Gryffindor. We're in Slytherin. You hate our guts, we hate yours. Why do you care?"

Lily opened her mouth, but Suzy cut her off. "Do you think that just because we're in Gryffindor that automatically makes us heartless idiots?" she asked, glaring at the Slytherin who had spoken. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe we could be Hogwartians first and Gryffindors second? We're in charge this year. That means we've got to take care of this whole school. We can't do that if we're automatically biased against you guys."

"Things are going to be different this year," Alice said. "For everyone. The guys just are taking a little time to figure that out."

"It'll be okay," the second-year said. "They're just idiots. But they'll figure things out eventually. Not all Slytherins are Death Eaters, you know. I'm a half-blood, and when my mum died, my dad remarried, and so my half-sister is muggle. I think you guys are going to save the school, actually. Cause you don't care what house people are in. You treat them all the same. You're going to do a great job running things." With a big yawn, he snuggled under the covers and closed his eyes.

The entire room stared at him. "One Slytherin down, only 39 more to go," Lily whispered.


	8. Two Rooms

_Two Rooms_

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I am not JKR. I wish I was, but, alas, it is not so.**

"I don't get it at all," Lily said. She, Alice, and Suzy were sprawled across their beds, chatting, eating candy, drinking hot chocolate, and just hanging out and relaxing. It was the Thursday night of their first week without all the teachers (though a few, like Kettleburn, weren't needed right away) and Sirius and James were at quidditch practice. Frank was wrapping things up in the Hospital Wing, and Remus and Peter were working on developing a sign language with some older students who had volunteered to help. They were the ones who had insisted that the girls take the night off.

"What?" Suzy asked.

"James. It's like he's two people, or something."

"Maybe he is!" Alice sat up, dropping the heavy book she had been reading onto the floor. Suzy winced as it hit the ground with a loud bang. "That would be so cool! Like, with his friends he was one person, but with everyone else, he was someone else! And his two counterparts had completely separate minds, and had no idea what the others had done! And so the Marauders were really just there to remind him of everything that had happened when he was his other and they're the only ones who know about it! And-"

"Alice, think about it," the ever-practical Suzy said. "Do you seriously think that that could happen, and no one would know?"

"Nope!" Alice had consumed an ungodly amount of sugar in the half hour the girls had been in their dorm, and was therefore rather…energetic. "Not Siriusly. I'm nothing like Black, thank Merlin's left pinky toe!"

"Merlin's left pinky toe?" Lily said, laughing. "I don't think I've heard that one before!"

"Course you haven't," Alice said scornfully. "I just made it up!"

"Really? Cause I thought I came across it when I was editing some third-year's essay for History of Magic," Suzy said.

"Which one?" Lily wanted to know.

"It was one some really mature 5th year came up with. _Profanity in the Middle Ages_, I think it was called."

"Are you pulling my wand?" Lily said, suspicious. She was rather gullible, and so, after being tricked countless times by friends and enemies alike, she had become quite wary about it.

"Nope!" Alice called. Lily and Suzy turned to her bed, but she wasn't there anymore. Instead, she was hanging from a hammock attached to the chandelier that lit up their dorm. "I had to grade a bunch of those. But I did make up Merlin's left pinky toe!" She glared defiantly down at her friends.

"Alice," Lily started, but she couldn't finish. She burst into laughter. It felt wonderful. When she could speak again, she asked Alice, "How the heck did you get up there?"

"Magic," Alice said, as though they were muggles and that was a basic solution that would answer everything. Seeing that her friends wanted more, she surrendered and said, "Actually, I used my sheets. I made a kind of pulley out of them, and pulled myself up. Once I was up here, it was a simple matter of tying the other sheets up here to make the hammock. The only magic I used was to get those extra sheets up here." Suzy and Lily still were staring at her, incredulous. "What?" she asked.

"Only you," Suzy said, shaking her head. "Only you would do something so random, so outrageous, so fast, and not get why we were staring at you."

"What?" she asked again. Then, more defiantly, as though she were ready to duel them over her right to hoist herself onto the chandelier, "Is there any reason why I shouldn't be up here?"

"Of course not," Lily said, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes. "It's just a little…unique, that's all."

"Unique is a good thing, right?" Alice wanted to know. Lily and Suzy looked at each other and burst into a fresh course of laughter. With a huff, Alice settled herself into her hammock. "Whenever you're done," she mumbled, annoyed.

"You don't know what unique means?" Suzy asked as soon as she could.

Affronted, Alice sat up and nearly fell out of her hammock, causing Lily to laugh even harder. "Of course I know what unique means," she said. "But I've heard it used so many different ways, I just wanted to know if you were insulting me."

"Merlin's beard, you're as bad as Sirius!" Suzy said. "Normal people know when they've been insulted."

"I'm normal!" Alice cried.

"Alice," Lily said in the voice one uses when pointing out the obvious to small children. "You are sitting in a hammock. Hanging from the chandelier in our dorm. That is not normal behavior!"

Alice pouted. "Well, I'm normal compared to Sirius, anyway," she said.

"True," Suzy conceded. "But then, practically everyone's normal compared to the Marauders." Suddenly, she remembered the beginning of their conversation and turned to Lily. "Weren't you saying something about James just now?"

"I was," Lily said, mock-glaring at her friends. "But then _some people_ had to go and distract me."

"Sorry!" Alice called.

Suzy sighed. "Can you come down from there? It's really weird talking to you when I can't see you."

There was a loud sigh, and then the hammock tipped abruptly and Alice came tumbling out. Shrieking, Lily and Suzy dove out of the way. Just before she hit the ground, Alice yelled, "_Cusheenum groudis_!"

"Merlin's pants!" Suzy gasped. "Don't _do_ that!"

"Sorry," Alice said, smirking slightly as she stood up. "Anyways, what were you saying about James?"

"It's just…he's so weird. One moment he's helping a Gryffindor first year with Transfig homework, the next he's pranking Slytherin first years. Sometimes he's being a terrific head boy, but other times running around disregarding every rule. He's a total git sometimes, and yet look at what he's done for Remus! He's full of contradictions. I just don't understand him!"

"And we all know Lily has to understand _everything_," Suzy said.

Lily murmured something that sounded like, "Shut up."

"Lily, listen to me." Alice was solemn now. "I don't know what's going on with James. I don't care what people think about me; I don't care what my public image looks like. None of us do. So I think it's hard for us to understand the position James and the others are in. For six years they've worked hard to build up this reputation. Now they feel like they've got to uphold that. Imagine how disappointed their fanclubs would be if they turned out to be decent people after all."

"She's right," Suzy said. "They're perfectly nice people, just a bit…misguided."

"And with some priorities mixed up," Alice added.

"I guess…" Lily still seemed a bit doubtful, but Alice and Suzy were confident that they had given her a lot to think about.

There was a moment of silence, and then Alice picked up her pillow and threw it at Suzy. With a yell, Suzy threw it back. Within moments, the dorm was full of flying pillows and laughter.

The girls enjoyed that night. They knew it was probably their last chance to be normal teenage girls, and they were right. For many miles away, in a cold building as dark and dreary as the girls' dormitory was welcoming, Hogwarts was being discussed by their enemies.

"Report." Lord Voldemort's voice was cold and high. He twirled his wand as he stared down the table at his followers.

"My lord," a gray-haired man, one of the oldest there, began. "There has been a shift in the tide of the battle against the Ministry. Dumbledore and some of the other teachers have joined their forces."

Voldemort stared coldly at him, his mind whirling with all the possibilities that this information presented. "But then who is at Hogwarts?" he asked himself softly. Then, snapping out of his thoughts, he barked, "Bellatrix! What is the situation at the school?"

The young dark-haired witch leaned forward eagerly. "My lord, there are very few teachers left there, and those are the ones that are the least useful for defense. My informants tell me that Dumbledore will not be returning to the school before the end of the year. The teachers, however, will come and go at the Ministry's calling."

A man cackled. "They must be really desperate to send that lot out. We'll have them beat by the end of the year."

Bellatrix continued, "My lord, the school is weak while they are gone. Even with one or two of the teachers there, we could easily take the place."

He considered this for a moment. It was a tempting thought, having control of Hogwarts. But it would have to be planned carefully. A failed attempt would set them far back. "Who is running the school, if the adults are all gone?"

Bella laughed, not the maniacal laugh of her later years, but a happy laugh, one not too different from the one Lily was uttering miles away. "That's the best part, my lord. James Potter and Lily Evans are, with the help of their friends." The entire table burst into laughter.

"Two teenagers, running Hogwarts?" one man said. "Dumbledore must have truly lost his mind!"

"And it's Evans and Potter, too!" a woman crowed. "They'll never work together. The school will be split, and we'll just march right in and take them!"

Cheers burst out all around the table, only to vanish the instant Voldemort raised his hand. "Avery, Bellatrix," he said, nodding at the gray-haired man. "I want the two of you to create a plan for an attack. Do not notify your sources at the school. Evans and Potter must have no idea of what we are doing. Surprise is key. Bring me the plan by the end of the week. I will review it, and we will take the school by the end of the month."

Death was coming to Hogwarts.


	9. The First Battles

_Battles_

"Safe journey!" Alice called as Madam Pomfrey's carriage rolled away. "Thank you for all your help!"

"Good luck!" Madam Pomfrey called back. Then her window rolled up, and she was gone. Alice sighed. Over the last month, the teachers had been constantly leaving. Every day one or two teachers would receive summons, and by noon they would be gone. That gave James and Lily very little time to readjust the schedule, even when the teachers thought to tell them they were leaving. Some hadn't, and the Heads suddenly found themselves a teacher short, with no idea where they had gone.

_At least we won that battle,_ Alice thought with satisfaction. After the first week, James and Lily had asked Peter to write a respectful letter to the Ministry, asking them to please send the summons the night before, unless absolutely necessary, and to send the young heads a copy so they knew what was going on. James had been the one to receive the reply.

"Parental complaint, something from Dumbledore, letter from Harry, another parental complaint, oh, good, a response from the Ministry." James was sitting alone in the Heads Common Room, sorting the mail. It was a chore universally despised by all of Group A, mainly due to the huge number of letters from upset parents. The letter from the Ministry made up for those, though. Or so James thought until he opened it.

Five minutes later, Lily came running into the Heads Common Room. "What's going on?" she demanded. "I heard all sorts of….oh, lord, James, what are you doing to yourself?" He was standing there, methodically banging his head against the wall. When James didn't reply, she said, rather threateningly, "James…"

"It was that Umbridge woman!" he yelled. "If she is a woman, which I doubt. Maybe she's a banshee. That would make sense. Banshees are supposed to be evil, right?"

"You got a reply?" Lily asked, hoping against hope that he hadn't given himself permanent brain damage.

Everyone had been very curious to see how the Ministry was going to treat the young heads. Would they treat them with respect and understand that they weren't Dumbledore and that things were going to be very different? Or would they abandon them, make them do everything themselves, and treat them like upstarts? Judging by James' reaction, Lily was ready to bet it was the latter.

James snorted. "I'll say! You should have seen that letter, Lily. That…_ female_ acted as though we were bratty children and she and her precious Ministry were just taking care of us and making sure that we didn't get too spoiled. She said that they had already done more than enough for us, and that if we continued to demand for more, she was going to have to take away our privileges!"

Lily gasped. "She said that?" When James nodded, she picked up a lamp and threw it against the wall. They stood there, staring at the shattered remains of what had been a precious antique lamp. Finally, Lily broke the silence. "What do we do now? Ask Dumbledore to intervene?"

"No," James said decisively, shaking his head. "That has to be our last resort. We have to show them that we can function, that we can do this without help. This is just a little thing. We've got to save Dumbledore for the big stuff."

Lily sighed. "You're right, of course. Why don't we bring it up at the meeting tonight?"

"Alright, everyone, quiet down!" Lily called. The HCR was packed, as it was for every weekly meeting. Things were falling slowly into a routine of sorts. The school was getting used to the new regime. "It's time to get started."

They went through the usual weekly business: scheduling quidditch practices, make-up lessons, training sessions for Group D, and the hundreds of complaints and concerns that the representatives brought from their people. When all that was done, James stood up and said, "I'm sure you all have noticed by this point that things are a bit chaotic in the mornings, with all the teachers leaving and none of us having any advance notice. Well, a few days ago, Peter wrote to the Ministry, asking them to let us know the night before which teachers they're going to need, and to give Lily and me the same information they were giving the teachers."

"It was an extremely respectful note," Lily put in. "And very well written. It was clear, concise, and polite."

"We got a reply this morning," James said. "Basically, the Ministry said that they weren't going to do anything for us. They acted as though it was our choice to have all this thrust upon us, and they were being very nice and tolerant by allowing us to."

"Are they mad?" Anabel Frest asked. "Everyone knows it's their incompetence that's making all this necessary."

"Not everyone," Mafalda Hoprick pointed out. "I know my mum thought it was all Dumbledore's fault in the beginning. I'm just beginning to be able to convince her that it's not what any of us, Dumbledore included, wanted."

"What are we going to do?" Humphrey McLaggan asked. "We can't just let them have their way!"

"Yeah!"

"We've got to stand up to them!"

"Fight their bigheadedness!"

"Oi! Shut up!" Suzy hollered. They quieted down immediately. "There's more to this than just standing up to them. We've got to stand up to them in a way that makes it clear we're doing this in self-defense. They've got all the power here. They control the _Prophet_. Have you lot noticed they've not written a word about what's going on here? They're trying to keep it quiet for as long as they can. As long as they keep the basic facts from everyone, people are going to get a twisted view of things. Merlin only knows how many lies they're spreading."

"So what can we do?" McLaggan asked again. "I mean, we can't just back down."

"We give people the facts," Suzy said. "Everyone here writes to their parents, their aunts, their uncles, their grandparents, to everyone who knows about the wizarding world. We tell them exactly what's going on here, and why. We give them the facts."

"So we spread our own propaganda before the Ministry can?" Anabel said. "Somehow that doesn't seem right."

"But that's the beauty of it," Remus said. "It's not propaganda. It's facts. Cold, solid facts. All of them. We don't have anything to hide, unlike the Ministry. We're right, and they know it. If we can get this information to everyone in the wizarding world, they'll all know it too."

"So all you want us to do is write to everyone we know in the wizarding world and tell them the facts of what's going on?" Mafalda confirmed. "We don't have to tell them we're right, the Ministry's wrong?"

"You don't have to write a single thing you don't want to," Lily said. "But, yes, we're hoping that you'll send the facts out. It might even be better if you just stick to facts, let them draw their own conclusions."

The plan went into action that night. By the end of the week, the owl traffic out of Hogwarts was astounding. Lily and James dipped into the school funds to pay for the rental of the majority of the owls at the Hogsmede Post Office. The replies were astonishing. Non-violent protesters marched inside of the Ministry, down Diagon Alley, and through ever magical street and town. There were, of course, those who disbelieved the Hogwarts students, and those who, even in possession of the facts, blamed Dumbledore. But they were the minority. 8 years into an impossible war, the wizarding world was itching for someone to blame. The Ministry had been pointing to Hogwarts, but, armed with the new facts, people began to turn that against them.

Only two weeks after James received Umbridge's reply, he received another letter from the Ministry.

"What is it?" Frank asked, fighting to see over Sirius' head as Group A crowded around the letter. "What's it say?"

"Dear Mr. Potter and Miss Evans," James read. "As Minister of Magic, I am appalled at the oversight of my people in not informing you of when we needed to borrow your teachers. We will of course remedy this fault immediately. From this point forward, we will do our best to send you the information twenty-four hours in advance. The latest it should come is twelve hours before we need the teacher. You will, I trust, understand if something was to come up last minute, and we should require a teacher immediately. Even then, you will still be informed, of course. I trust you are doing well. Ptolemy Elphick, Minister of Magic." James threw the letter down onto the table. "Merlin's beard! These people are such hypocrites!"

Lily picked up the letter and scanned it. Shaking her head, she said, "I don't believe it. There's not a single mention of that Umbridge's letter, or their other faults."

"At least we've got them scared," Remus said, throwing himself down on one of the couches in the HCR. "They won't underestimate us again, that's for sure."

Now, as Alice watched Madam Pomfrey's carriage disappear from sight, she remembered their victory with glee. Her musings were interrupted by a crack of lighting, followed closely by a boom of thunder. The heavens opened, and rain poured down. Alice ran for the cover of the school.

Late that night, she and the others of Group A were huddled in the armchairs near the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room, trying to finish their homework.

"Remus," Sirius whined. "Why is aventurine a necessary ingredient in Felix Felicis and why do I care?"

Remus groaned. For years his friends had been asking him for help on homework they could easily do themselves. But of course, it was so much easier to just ask him than to actually go look it up. Remus had stopped fighting it years ago. "It's got something to do with its properties in Divination. Something about seeing what it is that you need or want done. I'm not really sure, though. Ask Lily."

"Lily!" Sirius hollered. She looked up from her seat.

"Merlin's beard, Black," she said. "Must you yell so loud? I'm only two meters away, for Pete's sake!"

"Wha?" Peter asked. He had dozed off over his homework, but the sound of his name had woken him.

Lily sighed. "It's just a muggle expression. What do you want, Black?"

"Why am I back to being Black?" Sirius pouted. "You called me Sirius earlier."

Suzy snorted. "It's really basic. Basic enough for even your mind to comprehend. When you act like Black, we call you Black. When you act like a decent human being, we call you Sirius."

Sirius opened his mouth to protest this latest slight on his character, but Remus interrupted him. "He wanted to know about aventurine in Felix Felicis. I didn't know, so I sent him to you. Can you help?"

Sighing, Lily went over to help. All was silent for a few minutes except for her voice as she quietly explained Potions to Sirius and Remus and the scratching of quills on paper.

Finally, a good hour later, Remus yawned and said, "Thanks, Lily. I think I finally get it."

"I don't!" Sirius complained.

"Here, just copy mine," Remus said, ignoring Lily's disapproving gaze. "When are those subs the Ministry promised us getting here?" he asked her.

"The first one's supposed to come tomorrow," Lily said, sighing. "We'd better get some rest, or we'll be in no shape to welcome him."

"Or her," Alice pointed out.

"Nah, it's a him," Frank said, digging the letter out of a stack of papers. "Delvin Whifferdill, professor in Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes, and Divination."

"What a name!" Suzy said, laughing. "Poor guy!"

James yawned. "Well, I don't know about you lot, but I'm going to bed," he said. "G'night."

"Night," the others mumbled, smothering yawns as they all trooped up the staircase into their dorms, and fell in bed.


	10. Professor Delvin Whifferdill

_Professor Delvin Whifferdill_

Alice raced through the hallways, desperately trying to reach the Great Hall before the eight o'clock bell sounded. Finally, she found herself only a turn away from her destination. _Yes!_ she thought exuberantly. _I'm going to make it!_ But then, as she rounded the corner, she suddenly found herself flying backwards, hitting a wall, and sliding painfully to the ground.

"Oh, dear!" a male voice exclaimed. "Are you all right?"

Groggily, Alice raised her head. For a moment, her head swum and she saw stars. Then her vision cleared and she saw who she's bumped into. It was a handsome man who looked to be only five or six years out of Hogwarts. He had long, blond hair contained into a ponytail, in sharp contrast to his dark business suit. He would have looked more in place at a Hollywood premiere than at Hogwarts. She stared at him stupidly for a moment, then leapt to her feet. "Who are you?" she demanded, her wand drawn and pointing straight at his chest.

He looked at her blankly, then with some amusement. "My dear, you don't think I'm a Death Eater, do you?"

"Who are you?" she repeated. "And what are you doing here?"

Laughing slightly, he raised his hands over his head. "My name is Delvin Whifferdill," he said confidently. When Alice didn't lower her wand, he gave her a questioning look. "You know, your new professor?"

Narrowing her eyes suspiciously, Alice said sharply, "Go ahead of me into the Great Hall." He complied.

Meanwhile, James and Lily were going through their normal morning routine. Lily stood in front of the schedules, calling up the houses one by one and answering any questions. Each representative took roll and reported to James, who stood at the front of the hall as well, but off to the side.

"Where's Alice?" Lily hissed at Suzy, who just shrugged.

Just then, Whifferdill came dramatically into the Hall, closely followed by Alice, whose wand was still pointing at his back. Someone screamed, and chaos almost broke out across the room as everyone noticed the presence of a stranger.

Then, "Quiet!" James commanded. He and Lily had their wands drawn, as did most of the other students.

"Who is this, Alice?" Lily asked.

"He claims to be the first substitute," Alice said. "I ran into him in the corridor."

"This is preposterous!" Whifferdill cried as some of the more senior prefects grabbed his arms and pulled him up to where James and Lily were standing. "I am your professor, and you should treat me as such!"

"You're not our professor until Lily and James say you are," Suzy said scornfully. "We have no proof that you are who you say you are, only your word."

Whifferdill drew himself up to his full height. "Are you doubting my word?"

"Yes," Sirius said frankly.

"How did you get into the castle?" Remus demanded.

"The Minister of Magic himself let me in," Whifferdill said, puffing up his chest.

Group A traded incredulous looks. "The Minister?" Frank said doubtfully.

Whifferdill smiled, pleased with their response. Lily, however, after her initial surprise, was not going to let that soften her. "Do you have proof of your identity?" she asked, holding out her left hand, her wand never wavering from his chest.

Whifferdill sneered, "I hardly think that will be necessary-" he started, but was quickly cut off by James.

"Who do you think you are?" James demanded. "We're in charge here. If we ask for identification, you give it to us."

"Don't you dare speak to me in that tone of voice!" Whifferdill seethed. "It is clear to me that Dumbledore gave you an inflated idea of your position. The Ministry sent me here to guide you. That is what I intend to do. I am your superior, until the Minister says otherwise."

Everyone in the Hall looked at each other, incredulous. "Can you believe this guy?" one girl whispered to another.

Then the entirety of Gryffindor house rose to their feet, closely followed by the rest of the school. Even most the Slytherins stood, albeit grudgingly. "You're forgetting just one thing," Marlene McKinnon said. "The Ministry isn't in charge of Hogwarts. Dumbledore was, and he passed that power onto James and Lily and the rest of Group A. You are not their superiors until they give that power to you."

"Come now!" Whifferdill cried, looking at the Slytherins in hopes of support. "Surely you can't _wish_ for them to be in charge."

"Maybe it's not exactly what we all would want-" Marlene started to say, but she was cut off by a yell.

"I like the way they're running the school!" the second-year Slytherin whom Lily had been talking to in the Hospital Wing called out.

"And me!" one of his friends cried.

The members of Group A listened in astonishment as almost the entire school was declaring their support to James and Lily. Avery, Snape, and the other DEWs were noticeably silent, but they were practically the only ones.

Finally, Lily and James raised their hands, silently calling for quiet. "Thank you," Lily said, her voice wavering slightly. Whifferdill stood stock still where he was, amazed at the student's opinions. His mind was whirling as he tried to find some way that he might be able to scrape a little power.

"Do you have proof of your identity?" James asked him. Grudgingly, Whifferdill handed it over.

"See, that wasn't too hard, was it?" Sirius said encouragingly. When Whifferdill turned away, however, Sirius mimed dumping water (or something worse) on his perfect hair-do.

As James and Lily poured over the identification, the entire school held its breath. All their wands were still drawn, and many students were itching for an excuse to get rid of this arrogant jerk. Finally, Lily raised her head. "Very well, professor. All this seems to be in order, but I'm sure you'll understand that there are a few more tests we must put you through. It's time for classes to start, however, so most of us have got to go. Remus, Sirius - James and I can take your first class without messing up the schedule too much if you two will see to Professor Whifferdill."

Sirius grinned maliciously and exchanged a mischievous glance with Remus. "We'd be happy to," he said.


	11. The Two Professors

"Accio potions!" Sirius yelled, pointing his wand at Whifferdill with gusto. Three vials flew out of Whifferdill's cloak. Remus grabbed them and turned away to test them.

"Is this really necessary?" Whifferdill asked weakly. For the last two hours, the boys had cast spell after spell, making absolutely sure that Whifferdill was safe. They were a bit rougher than they would have usually been.

"Are you done?" Frank stuck his head into the empty classroom they were using. "Cause it's really going to mess things up if you can't teach next period."

"We're just double checking a last few things," Remus said.

"Yeah, we'll be out a minute or two," Sirius seconded.

"Can he start teaching today?" Frank jerked his head towards Whifferdill.

"Of course I can," he exclaimed. "These boys can vouch for me."

Remus sighed. "He's safe."

"Whether he's sane is another matter," Sirius muttered so only Frank and Remus could hear.

_Miss Evans and Mr. Potter,_

_Per your request, this letter is to notify you that the second substitute teacher we promised you will be arriving today._

_Hoping you are well,_  
_Ptolemy Elphick_  
_Minister of Magic_

James sighed and put the letter down, hoping that the new sub would be better than Whifferdill. His relationship with the rest of the school was rocky, at best. Though he hadn't tried to take over the school again, his arrogance made him assume that he could do everything a thousand times better than anyone else at the school. This made him the most unpopular teacher at Hogwarts. The few times that the actual teachers returned from the war, they were appalled at him.

"Can he teach, at least?" McGonagall asked James one day.

He sighed. "It depends on what you mean by teaching. He covers the material, but...not in a good way. Everything he teaches includes some story in which he heroically saves some damsel in distress from some horrible monster. Care of Magical Creatures is the worst for that. All he does is brag about how he destroyed all these beasts. Hagrid was here last week and nearly went mad when he saw the way Whifferdill treated the hippogriffs."

"I don't blame him in the least," McGonagall said. "If Whifferdill were tearing my subject to shreds, I'd probably go mad, too."

Now James looked at the letter he and Lily had received that morning and sighed. He pushed it aside and got out his History of Magic textbook and began to read. _One of the most powerful dark wizards of all time, Grindelwald attended Durmstrang Institute for Magical Learning until he was expelled in 1899 for use of Dark Magic..._

"James!" Lily flew into the HCR, gasping for breath. "James, the second sub is here! And you'll never guess who it is!"

"Who?" James asked, jumping to his feet and beginning to run towards the front of the school, Lily on his heels. She didn't answer, so James was shocked when he saw a young red-haired woman he knew well. "Molly?" he gasped.

Alice was helping Mrs. Weasley up the stairs. "Oh, good," she said. "I knew you'd be surprised!"

"But what are _you_ doing here?" James asked, nonplussed.

Molly laughed. "The Ministry's desperate. I have NEWTs in Charms and Transfiguration, so they sent me here to teach those."

"They're mad," Alice said, releasing Molly's arm as they reached the front doors. "Sending you here, in your condition."

"Her condition?" James asked.

Lily and Alice traded glances, and sighed. "Honestly, James, don't you have eyes?" Lily demanded. "She's pregnant!"

James gaped at her. "Again?" he asked.

Molly laughed. "Arthur and I are trying for a girl."

"Do you know what this one's going to be?" Alice asked.

Molly shook her head. "I was going to go to St. Mungo's and have them check this morning, but, well, I'm here instead!"

"But who's taking care of the others?" James wanted to know.

"Bill's looking after them," Molly said.

Alice gasped. "But he's only seven!"

"They're in daycare most of the day," Molly said, disapproval clear in her voice.

"Daycare?" Lily asked, disgusted. "They have to force you to work, but they can set up daycare centers?"

Alice snorted. "Just be glad they're not sending the kids here to play."

"It's a muggle daycare," Molly said. The others stared at her.

"But..." James was incredulous. "Bill is seven, Molly. _Seven_."

"I know," Molly said sadly. "But there's no other option."

"I don't understand," Lily said. "Why does it matter if he's seven?"

"That's the age when most witches and wizards start showing their magic," Alice said. "It's not a time when you want them to be around muggles."

For a moment, all was silent as Lily let that sink in. "They're mad," she said finally. "The Ministry, I mean. They're completely barmy!"

"No," Molly said. "Just desperate. It's You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters that are mad. They're the ones behind all this, and it's not going to be over until they're all dead or in Azkaban."

Mrs. Weasley soon proved to be a godsend. Within three days, she had completly transformed Hogwarts. With three small boys, she knew how to handle children. Unlike Whifferdill, she actually made Group A's lives much easier. But they were worried about her.

"Molly's working so hard," Alice told Frank one night as they patrolled the corridors together. "It can't be good for the baby."

"I know," he said. "But there's nothing we can do. She won't listen when we tell her to stop. But she's going to end up with a still-born baby if she's not careful."

"I wonder if she would let us do the test to find the gender," Alice said thoughtfully. "I'd like to know, and I think she would, too. We might be able to convince her to rest a bit, even."

"It's worth a try," Frank said.

Molly agreed for them to do the test instantly. "This is the longest I've ever waited," she told Suzy as Alice and Frank ran around, getting everything ready. While the gender test wasn't incredibly complex, it was a NEWT level spell.

"Will you be disappointed if it's another boy?" Suzy asked.

Molly shrugged. "Of course I will be, but I know how wonderful boys are. And I know Bill and Charlie and Percy would like another brother."

Three strenuous hours later, Alice and Frank burst into the Hospital Wing, where Suzy was still sitting next to Molly.

"It's twins!" Alice cried.

Molly doubled over with laughter. "Twins!" she gasped. "Of course it would be twins!"

"Are they identical?" Suzy asked.

Frank nodded. "Boys," he said.

"Oh, my," Molly said, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. "Two more boys! This is going to be a fun year for me and Arthur!"

"All right, everyone, time!" Frank called out. He was teaching a first year potions class and trying to complete an essay for Transfiguration at the same time. He quickly found that that didn't work too well. One girl melted her cauldron and dissolved in tears. A boy managed to cause a small explosion. Basically, the class was chaos, and it was now almost the end of the period and Frank had written three sentences.

The entire class turned in their seats as the door banged open. A fifth year Gryffindor was there, panting for breath. "Need you...Hospital Wing..." she gasped out.

"What's going on?" Frank asked.

"Mrs. Weasley...fell...I'm to take class...go..."

Within minutes, Frank and Alice were both at the hospital wing, standing over Mrs. Weasley, who was lying on a bed, her face contracted in pain. The five students they had taken on as assistants hovered around them.

"Go get me the _The Magikal Apothekary_," Frank told one of them. They ran to Madam Pomfrey's office and returned with a huge book. While Alice ran basic tests on Molly, he searched through the tome for the spells that would help her.

"She's alive, and so are the babies," Alice said softly. "But things are pretty unstable. I think she just got very lucky."

"I found a few spells that should help," Frank said, and they went to work.

That evening, James, Suzy, Sirius, and Alice huddled around Mrs. Weasley's bed. She had regained consiousness, but was very weak.

"Molly, you can't keep doing this," James said. "You're going to kill yourself!"

"Or the babies," Sirius put in.

"It doesn't matter," Molly said. "You lot need help, and the Ministry sent me."

"We'll be fine without you," Suzy said, though she was privately remembering how nice it was to have Molly there. She mothered everyone, and being mothered was not something that happened often to Suzy. "We got on all right before."

"It's not that we want you to leave," Sirius said. He, too, was not used to being mothered, and while he found that sometimes Molly did a bit too much, he was going to miss her when she was gone. "But you can't risk working here any longer. It's not safe for you!"

Molly snorted. "It's the most protected place in the wizarding world right now. I'm perfectly safe here."

"Sirius is right, for once," Alice said. Ignoring his outraged snort, she continued, "It's not You-Know-Who we're worried about. Hogwarts is...well, it changes. Things are never the same from one day to the next. Just living in the castle gets slightly stressful because of all that. Being a student is bad enough, but teaching here is the worst. I just don't think you should be here, Molly. It's too unstable. And your boys need you. It's not good for them to be in a muggle daycare all day, especially with Bill's magic starting to show."

"Are you sure you'll be all right?" Molly asked anxiously. She hadn't said anything (the poor teens had enough on their minds without worrying about her as well) but she _was_ missing Arthur and the boys. And it was tiring, working 24 hours a day as everyone in a position of power at Hogwarts was now required to do. The fall she had taken that morning had hurt more than she had mentioned, and her dreams were filled with the Burrow.

"Of course we will be!" James said. "Not that we won't miss you, but you need to go home."

With a sigh, Molly surrendered. "Very well, then. I'll go home in the morning."

"Goodbye!" Alice called. "Say hi to the boys and Arthur for me!"

"Of course!" Molly called back from her carriage. "You all take care!"

"We will!" Alice hollered, and Mrs. Weasley's carriage swept out of sight. With a sigh, Alice headed back inside, only to see Lily barrelling towards her.

With an "Oof!" the girls collided. "Sorry!" Lily gasped. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," Alice said breathlessly. "Just got the breath knocked out of me for a second. What's going on?"

"The third sub is supposed to be coming today," Lily said. "Right about now."

"Oh, good!" Alice said. "That's perfect timing."

"I think I see their carriage," Lily said, straining to see. "Do you see anything?"

"I think so...yes, there it is!"

The two girls ran down to meet their new colleague/teacher/advisor/substitute. They arrived at the gates just as he was embarking.

"Excuse me, sir," Lily said. "Are you the new substitute?"

"I am." The man turned towards them and Lily and Alice gasped. He was tall and handsome, with blond hair that was almost white. His eyes were a piercing gray. In his hand he held a cane that Lily knew from experience contained his wand. It was Lucius Malfoy.

"What are you doing here?" Alice blurted out.

He turned coolly to her and smiled, but it was not a warm smile. It closely resembled a sneer. "Miss...Montgomery, is it? A pureblood, I believe?"

"You're not welcome here," Lily said. Her wand was drawn and pointing straight at Malfoy's chest. Her hand was quivering, but her face was determined and her voice was steady. "Get out of here."

"The Minister of Magic himself escorted me to the gates," Malfoy said, gesturing to the carriage that was making its way back to Hogsmede. "Who are you to question his authority?"

"The heads of this school," Lily said, more boldly than she felt. "Elphick is an incompetent idiot who's only good at blowing things up. We're in charge here, and if we say you're to leave this school, you leave."

Malfoy's face contorted, destroying his good looks. "You go on believing you run things here," he hissed. "You'll find out what the state of things really is soon enough." On that pleasant note, he stepped off campus and disapparated, leaving Alice and Lily staring after him.

"Well," Alice finally said. "That's cheerful."

"I wonder what he meant," Lily mused.

Alice shrugged. "Empty threats, if you ask me."

"But what if it isn't?" Lily asked. "What if they're really planning something?"

"We'll be ready," Alice said despite her actual doubts. "We've done the evacuation drills again and again. Everyone knows where they're supposed to be when, and the training for the fighters is coming along nicely. We've got you and James in charge, and Whifferdill will be some help, useless as he is at teaching."

"That's what worries me," Lily said as they started to walk back to the school. "Everyone's depending on me and James. We're just 17 year old kids, for crying out loud! I won't even be a legal adult in the muggle world for another month! This is madness, what we're trying to do! The only reason we've had any success is because the students were easy enough to win over. And we can't even depend on all of them! We have no idea if the DEWs are all going to be Death Eaters, or if some random Slytherin we've never considered evil will turn out to be working for them all along!"

"Lily," Alice said, stopping and laying a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Creating the DEW group was a precaution. We put everyone who's ever talked with the real Death Eater Wannabes in there, and their brother! There's absolutely no way we missed anyone. And if they're not all evil, that's okay! They don't matter, Lily. What matters is you and James. There's a reason we're putting all our trust in you two, a reason Dumbledore picked you to run the school. There's a reason you guys were able to win the school over so easily. You are the best. You're two of the most talented students Hogwarts has ever seen, and I'm not just talking about academics, though of course you're both amazing at that as well. You know the school, and you love it. You know the students, too, and understand them, share their concerns. You can do this, Lily. You have been doing it, and you'll keep doing it."

"But what if we don't?" Lily asked. "What if there is an attack, and someone dies? The parents will slaughter us!"

"Remember, you won't be alone if something happens," Alice reminded her. "The Ministry will help, and they're actually good at fighting, unlike their education policy." Seeing that Lily wasn't convinced, Alice gave up and said, "Come on. We've got half an hour until the next class starts, and you need a nap."


	12. Harriett

"Not bad today," Lily said, surveying the piles of mail that lay in front of her. "Only five parental complaints, and one's from my mum."

"Is she still on you about Christmas?" Alice asked. Lily nodded, and all three girls sighed.

"She needs to get over it," Suzy said. "I mean, sure, most kids go home, and yes, you've always gone home before. But you're not always going to be going hone for Christmas! She needs to realize you're grown up now!"

Remus frowned. "Doesn't she understand we need you here?" he asked. "I mean, it would be a little impractical for you to leave when you're running the school."

The girls traded glances. Guessing what was going on from their guilty expressions, Sirius asked, "She does know you're running the school, doesn't she?"

Lily shook her head. "She doesn't even know about the war," she confessed.

The boys stared at her. "Why in the name of Merlin did you not tell her?" Sirius demanded. "Do you want her to disown you?"

"Leave her alone," Suzy snapped. "My mum died not knowing about the war!"

For a moment, everyone fell into an ashamed silence. Then Sirius, who as always was unable to remain quiet for long, said, "But Lily's case is different! Her mom's more...I dunno...stable?"

Suzy glared fiercely at him, unshed tears sparkling in her eyes. "Shut it, Black."

"They're right," Lily said unexpectedly. "In my case, at least. I should have told Mum."

Instantly Alice whirled on her. "No! You couldn't! Don't you dare do that, Lily Evans, or I swear to Merlin that I'll steal all your muggle books and burn them!"

"I'm not going to," Lily assured her. "You have to admit that I should, though. I'm being a horrible daughter."

"You'd be a far worse friend and person if you did tell her," Suzy said.

"What's so bad about it?" Frank asked. "I mean, you're acting as though she'd pull Lily out of Hogwarts if she found out."

"That's exactly what she would do," Lily said. The boys stared at her.

"You're kidding," Remus said. Lily shook her head.

"I mentioned something about how some sixth year had been taken out of school because her mum was killed in one of the first letters I wrote home. I got a hysterical reply. She literally wanted me to leave Hogwarts and come home."

Seeing the other's openmouthed stares, Alice asked, "Is it really that surprising? A huge number of people are doing it."

"Yeah..." Sirius said. "But no one we really know."

Just then, James walked in from a training session. "Oh, there you are!" Lily exclaimed. "Good! You've got a letter."

As the others started to fill James in on the situation with Lily's mum, she threw the letter across the room to him. Halfway there, it vanished. Instantly, everyone turned to Sirius.

"Not funny, Black," Lily said.

He held up his hands in protest. "It wasn't me!" Seeing their doubtful looks, he added, "I swear it! On my honour as a Marauder!"

"It was Remus," Suzy said abruptly. They all turned to look at her. "He's got that mischevious look in his eyes," she explained. When comprehension dawned on no one, she added, "You know...that one he gets when he's trying to look innocent and failing miserably."

Lily went over and grabbed the stack of papers that Remus was working on. "Hey!" he cried, grabbing for them. "Give that back!"

"Yup!" Lily cried, triumphantly waving the letter. "Great job, Suzy!" She went over and handed the letter to James. He was not destined to have it yet, for Sirius, recognizing the handwriting, grabbed it from his best mate's hands.

"It's from Harry!" he called, tearing it open.

"What?" James exploded. "Give that back! It's mine!"

"That's from Harriett?" Remus cried. "Let me see it!"

"I want to read it!" Peter said, joining in the melee.

"Who is this Harriett person?" Suzy demanded, her hands covering her ears as the boys screeched and fought for the letter.

"James' cousin," Frank explained. "You'll have to ask one of them-" he jerked his head towards the squabbling foursome, "-if you want to whole story."

"OI! YOU LOT!" Alice hollered as loud as she could. She had a nice, healthy pair of lungs, and her yells were dreaded by everyone who had even a particle of sanity. "SHUT UP A MOMENT, WILL YOU, AND EXPLAIN TO US WHO THIS PERSON IS!"

The boys paused."Prongs' cousin," Sirius said finally.

"It's kind of a long story," Remus said.

"We've got all night," Lily said. "It's only, what? Midnight?" The girls and Frank settled themselves into the most comfortable chairs and prepared for the story.

James and Harriett had first met the summer after James' first year. His aunt and uncle came with their oldest child, a girl named Harriett, to Potter Manor, James' house, for the summer. She was very, very quiet. It was the summer she was 11 and all summer she waited for her letter. Dumbledore knew that she was staying with her cousins; he would have written to her there. But no letter came.

Finally, on August 31, Harriett had to face the fact that she wasn't going to Hogwarts. She went to bed early, with the intention of crying herself to sleep. But her throat was dry, and she crept downstairs to get a drink of water. That's when she heard her parents talking to James and his parents.

"I can't believe it!" her mum was saying. "The first squib in the Potter family, and it has to be our daughter!"

"It's not her fault," James' dad said. "You can't help how much magical ability you have."

"She could have at least tried," Harriett's mum retorted. "But she's never made any effort to learn!"

That was too much. Sobbing, Harriett fled outside, slamming the door behind her. Everyone looked up, startled. Her parents looked guilty, James' parents sad. James, on the other hand, was furious.

"How can you say such things about your own daughter?" he yelled at her parents. "She can't help it! Maybe she feels just as awful about this as you! Did you ever think about that? She's your daughter, for Merlin's sake! You should love her, whether she's a squib or the most powerful witch ever! How can you do such a thing to her?"

Harriett's mum rose from her chair haughtily. "I will not be spoken to in that insolent manner. I fancy I may know a bit more about parenting than you, young man. You should be ashamed of yourself."

James gasped in indignation. "I should be ashamed? You're the one who just made your own daughter cry! Get out! Now!" When she didn't move, just stood there seething, he yelled, "GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" and pulled out his wand.

"How dare you!" Before anyone could stop her, Harriett's mum had grabbed James and started shaking him. "How dare you speak to me like that!"

"Laura!" James' mum cried. Now her wand was out, too. "Get. Your. Hands. Off. My. Son. Now." Shamefaced, Laura did. "James, that is no way to speak to your aunt." As he opened his mouth to protest, she said, "Let me finish. Every word you said was true-"

Laura interrupted, crying, "Well!"

Glaring at her, James' mum continued, "Every word you said was true, but at the moment, you're best employed in comforting Harriett." Without a word, James nodded and slipped out the door. The instant he was gone, James' mum turned to Harriett's dad. "I'm sorry, Phil, but I've just got to say what I've got to say. Why don't you and Sam go outside and have a brotherly chat?" Taking the hint, the dads left the room.

"And what right do you have to boss around my husband, Marie?" Laura asked.

"More right than you have to hit my son," James' mum replied.

"He insulted me!"

"Every word he said was entirely accurate."

"So." Laura's eyes were shooting sparks. "It comes to this. You would interfere in how I run my family."

"No. I would just ask you to remember that it's not Harriett's fault."

As the fight escalated inside, Harriett ran deeper and deeper into the maze that was the Potter's garden. Finally, her legs collapsed and she gave way to sobbing. That's how James found her, about 20 minutes later.

He picked her up and gently carried her over to a bench. There, he held her as she sobbed her heart out.

"Do you want me to go back there and blast them to pieces?" James offered when her sobs started to subside. "I won't get expelled for a first time offence."

At this, Harriett gave a watery laugh. "No," she said. Then her face contorted and she buried it in James' shoulder. "Why did they say those things?" she asked when she could speak again. "I tried, really, I did."

"I know you did," James said. "They're just being stupid. Magic isn't everything."

"You've never had to live without it," Harriett pointed out.

"Muggles live without it all the time."

"They don't know it exists. Squibs have it the worst. Purebloods are in the wizarding world, half-bloods and muggle-borns are in both, but squibs? We've got a foot in each world, but we aren't really part of either."

"Harriett, listen to me. This isn't the end of the world." James fumbled in his pocket, then pulled out a bar of Honeyduke's chocolate. "Here."

She took the chocolate, and as she ate it, her spirits began to revive a bit. She was an optimistic girl, and began to see the good in the situation. "I don't really mind all that much. I'd be worst in my year if I did go, and I'm interested in the things they teach at muggle schools. It's just…well, you saw what Mum and Dad think of it. And all my friends are going next year."

"Make new friends," James instantly suggested. "Muggle friends, who have the same sort of interests as you. You can still owl your magic friends. And I know there's a boy who's going to be a 7th year, his older just married a woman who's a squib. Maybe you can talk to her. Her name's Arabella Figgs."

"But all the other kids," Harriett said. "Won't they tease me?"

James considered this for a moment. "Some will," he said finally. "But your friends won't. And if anyone does, just send me an owl with their names, and I'll hex them for you."

Harriett giggled. "Really?" she asked.

"Of course!" James was appalled to think that such a thing could be doubted.

"But won't you get in trouble?"

James winked at her. "I've had 132 detentions already. A few more won't matter."

They stayed there a while, just talking. Eventually, Harriett fell asleep. As James carried her up to her room, he heard yelling. After Harriett was safely in bed, he went down to investigate. He found his mother dueling his aunt, with their husbands standing off to the side, taking bets and looking amused. The Potters were famous for marrying women with tempers. Shaking his head, James went to bed.

From that point on, letters flew between James and Harriett. True to his word, James didn't let anyone say a word against his cousin. Though her parents never returned to Potter Manor, Harriett was a frequent visitor. She got to know the rest of the Marauders and became the recipient of all their confidences. She soothed Remus when he was feeling guilty about his "furry little problem," joined with Sirius in his hatred of his family, and helped Peter gain more self-confidence.

In return, she gained three more loyal defenders and three of the truest friends ever. It was Sirius who one day began to suspect that there was something more to Harriett than what was on the surface. She and James had a game going; he would put a spell or potion on someone, and she would have to guess what it was. She was never wrong.

It had started the summer after James' 5rd year, one day when they were doing James' school shopping in Diagon Alley. James and Harriett were sitting outside of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, eating the delicious, sugary ice cream and chatting when Lily came towards them, intending to get an ice cream cone.

Forgetting Harriett, James called out, "Hey, Evans!"

She turned and glared at him. "Not here, Potter. I can't curse you, but that won't stop me from beating you up the muggle way if I have to." Before he could respond, she darted into the shop.

"That's Lily Evans?" Harriett asked. She had heard loads from all of the Marauders about James' infamous crush.

James smiled dreamily. "Yes, that's her. You ought to get to know her, Harry. I'm going to marry her one day, you know."

Harriett laughed. "Aren't you a bit young to be thinking of that? You're only 15, for Merlin's sake!"

James shook his head. "You don't understand." As Harriett opened her mouth to protest, he held up a hand to quiet her and continued, "It's okay. No one quite gets it. Not even Sirius or Remus or Peter. Lily…she's not like anyone else. You'll like her, I know you will."

Just then, Lily herself came out of the shop. "Hey, Evans!" James called. "Can you come over here for a second?"  
She paused for a moment, sighed, then said, "Why would I do that, Potter?" She didn't sound mad, as she normally did when talking to James. Instead, she sounded tired. Tired of always being asked out, of being stalked, of being known throughout the wizarding world as "that girl that Potter's in love with who won't have him."

"I have someone I want you to meet-" James started, but he didn't get to finish, for just then, Snape came out of a nearby store. Seeing Lily, he made a beeline for her. She swore under her breath and did her best to avoid him, but he grabbed her arm.

"Lily, please, you have to listen to me."

James was on his feet, wand drawn, before Harriett knew what he was doing. "She doesn't have to do anything."

"I can answer for myself, Potter," Lily said. "But for once in your life you have the right idea. Let go of me, Snape, or I swear I'll blast your arm off."

Instead, Snape tightened his grip, pulling her close to him. "Lily, please!" he cried. "I didn't mean to call you that, you know I never meant to!"

"I know that you've always called everyone like me that! You were my best friend, Snape, but you've changed!"

"I'll change back," he swore.

She laughed. "It's too late. You're already all posed to become a Death Eater. You're one of them now, Snivillus."

A spasm of pain flashed across his face. "Don't do this to me, please, Lily! I love you!"

She stared at him, outraged. "You what?" Before he could answer, she had whipped out her wand and brought pointed it at him. There was a bang, and he flew backwards. As he lay motionless on the pavement, boils began to pop out of his skin.

"What did you hit him with?" James asked, wide-eyed.

Lily was just as shocked as he was. "I…I have no idea."

"Furnunculus," Harriett said before she knew what she was doing.

"I guess it could be…" Lily said doubtfully.

"It is." Harriett said, absolutely certain.

"It looks like it," James said.

"I'm telling you, it is!" Harriett insisted. After a moment of inspection, she was proved right.

"Nice one, Harry!" James said. Then, "Evans! Where are you going?"

"Back to my family," she said. James opened his mouth, but she cut him off, "And no, I do not need an escort. And I won't go out with you." Turning to Harriett, she added, "I don't know who you are, but if you're with him I should warn you he's the most arrogant prat in the universe. Thanks for the help, and good luck getting rid of him." With that, she was gone.

James stared after her for a moment, then asked Harriett, "How'd you know that it was Furnunculus?"

"I don't know," she said. "I just knew."

So the Marauders began to test her. They couldn't do much that summer, but the next, when they were of age, was spent almost completely seeing how many spells Harriett could identify. By the time they went off to their 7th year, Harriett could tell whenever someone had some form of magic on them, whether it was a curse, charm, or potion.

By then, Harriett was living at Potter Manor year round. Her parents, like James', were senior Aurors. The four of them were going to lunch together one day during James' 5th year when they were attacked. James' parents survived. Harriett's didn't.

"She's like a sister to me," James concluded.

"To all of us," Remus said.

"Harriett's special," Sirius said. "You'll meet her one day, all of you. Then you'll see."


	13. The Battle of Hogwarts

"Surge, Daemonum flammae. Ad me. Facere imperium." Frank froze. He was returning from the last patrol of the night, and the castle was deserted. Everyone should have been asleep, or at the very least in their common rooms. Yet here was a voice, a man's voice, intoning a spell.

"Iuvare me in purgans hoc schola omnes contagione," the voice continued. It didn't sound like any of the spells Frank knew. For one thing, it was much longer. But there was also a strange double quality to the man's voice, a sort of echo that preluded his voice.

Frank crept over to the classroom the voice came from and put his eye to the keyhole. The room was dimly lit with candles, but it was not a romantic setting. Instead, it looked ominous. Professor Whifferdill knelt at one side of the room, drawing designs on the floor in some chalky substance as he spoke.

He sat back on his heels, still chanting. Orange flames began to form within the shape he had drawn. They grew until they almost engulfed Whifferdill, but he drew his wand and pushed it away from him. His face was excited and almost fanatical, but his eyes were empty of all emotion. "Quia ego dominus omnium!" With a flourish of his wand, Whifferdill finished the spell. The orange fire began to solidify,

Frank had no idea what was going on here, but he knew it wasn't good. He barged into the classroom in true Gryffindor style, his wand drawn, and no plan in his mind. "Stop!" he yelled.

Whifferdill glanced over at him and began to laugh. "Ah, the heroic defender of the school. Well, you're too late, boy. The demon is raised!" The double quality of his voice was gone, and he sounded weak but elated. He pointed triumphantly at the orange flame, which had taken on a vaguely humanoid shape.

"Fffffoolish human," the demon hissed. "Ddddid you thhhink you could contain me?"

Frank backed out of the room, adrenaline pumping through his veins. Now he recognized the type of spell Whifferdill had been doing: necromantia, the darkest form of magic. The spell to create inferi was a form of it, as were attempts to raise the dead. In this case, Whifferdill had been raising a demon.

Frank knew about the Evocator, the demon raisers. . It was said that they had ruled the wizarding world during the Dark Ages. No one knew what caused them to suddenly lose power, but by the Renaissance, they were no more than legends. All that remained of their vast knowledge was one book, from which modern dark wizards learned how to do basic necromantia. Every century or so, some stupid witch or wizard attempted the true necromantia, the blackest of all black magic. Inevitably, they died, and more often than not, they also took thousands of people with them.

Frank backed out of the room, putting his wand to his head as a muggle would a cell phone, and said, "Group A." A moment later, he was connected to all of Group A.

"What's going on?" Suzy demanded. "I was trying to sleep!"

"Whifferdill's raised a demon," Frank told them quietly.

There was a moment of silence, then Sirius said, "You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're kidding, because if you aren't we're all dead."

"I'm not kidding," Frank said. "I wish I was, but I saw it. It spoke."

"What did it say?" James asked.

"Something about how Whifferdill was foolish to think he could contain it."

Lily snorted. "Well, duh!"

"We're on our way," Remus said.

"I'm on the third floor-" Frank started to say, but Peter cut him off.

"We know. We have the map."

"We don't know!" Suzy protested.

"Third floor by the Charms corridor," Sirius said. "We're on our way."

"Frank?" Alice said timidly. "Be careful."

"I'll do my best," Frank said.

Alice was the first one to arrive. She came at a run, panting and gasping. In the minute that had passed since they had stopped talking, she had envisioned all kinds of horrible fates happening to Frank. Now he grabbed her as she stumbled towards him and held her up. "Frank!" she cried. He grabbed her as she stumbled. "Oh, thank Merlin you're okay!"

"What's wrong?" he asked her, worried. Normally Alice's insanity showed itself in ways like climbing up a chandelier, not in random panic attacks.

She laughed, a bit hysterically. "You mean other than the fact that you were stuck in a room with a demon and our maniacal professor?"

Frank stared at her. "You were worried about _me_?" he asked. Sometime around his third year, he had noticed that dorky little Alice Montgomery had gotten very pretty. His slight crush on her hadn't stopped him from dating other girls, but none of his romances had been very serious (and no, not serious like Sirius). But then that slight crush had started to turn into a full-blown attack of love in his sixth year. He had started acting almost as bad as James in the boys' dorm. In fact, Sirius claimed he was even worse, because, "At least our dear Prongsie expresses his love. Poor Frankie, though, has to suffer from a prolonged fit of unrequited love, or so he thinks, at least, and since he won't allow his precious Alice to see it, he has to survive without nourishing his love with the usual things."

Many times, Remus had advised Frank to at least give Alice some sign that he fancied her, but Frank was adamant. "There is no way I'm going to give her any reason to think that I do," he always said. "She doesn't fancy me back, so there's no point!"

Remus always shook his head and said, "You won't know until you ask!" But Frank had never even considered the possibility that Alice fancied him. Sure, he was decent at school and relatively popular, but, always a modest boy, he saw himself as completely mediocre and uninteresting. He would have truly been shocked if he had known that he had a fan club. True, it was smaller than the Marauders', but it was still a considerable size.

Now Alice was blushing - actually blushing and looking away from him! - as she mumbled an answer to his question. "Sorry," he said, not believing his ears. "What was that?"

"I said, yes, I was worried about you," Alice whispered about him.

"Why?" Frank said, still not quite adjusted to this idea. _Of course she was worried about you,_ the sensible part of him whispered. _You're friends now. She would have been just as worried if it were Remus or James in your place._

_Then why is she looking so embarrassed?_ the insane part of him demanded. _She wouldn't look that embarrassed if there wasn't something else going on._

"Frank..." Alice whispered hesitantly, interrupting his internal conflict. Just a year ago, she would never have ever considered this. She had fancied Frank since their fourth year, but never had planned on acting on it. Despite the fact that her friends all considered her the most insane person in the world, Alice was in some ways very shy, partly in thanks to the tough treatment she got from her Great-Aunt-Agatha, who had gone to her grave believing that her great-niece was a squib, and that Dumbledore was barking mad to let her into Hogwarts. As a result, Alice was very unsure of herself with people she didn't know very well and had rather low self-esteem.

Tentatively, slightly shocked at her own daring, Alice reached up and kissed Frank smack on the lips. After a long, happy moment, they pulled away from each other. Both were grinning like idiots. "I fancy you, you dolt," Alice whispered after a moment. "That's why I was so worried."

"Told you!" a voice hissed from behind them. It sounded vaguely familiar, but Alice and Frank weren't going to waste a thought on whoever-it-was.

"Fine," another voice grumbled. This person, too, sounded familiar. Coins clinked, and another voice said,

"C'mon, you two! We've got a demon to deal with, remember?"

As Alice and Frank, reminded of the reason they were in this corridor at this moment, pulled apart from each other to see a disgruntled Remus, a boastful Sirius, and a stressed-looking James come out the corner in which they had been hiding.

"You were watching?" Alice hissed at them, appalled.

Sirius smirked. "Marauder's privilege!"

Remus mumbled something that sounded like, "You have too many privileges already."

"Oh, cheer up, Mooney!" Sirius said bracingly, clapping his friend on the back. "It's only ten galleons!"

"You _bet_ on this?" Frank cried incredulously.

"Will you lot shut up?" James demanded. "There's a demon in there, in case you forgot!" He glared at the other Marauders, then turned to Alice and Frank. "I'm glad you two finally got together, too, but we've got to take care of this first. It's in there?" James whispered, pointing at the classroom. Frank nodded, and James took a deep breath. "All right. I'm going in."

"What?" Sirius hissed. "You can't do that! We need you!"

"I'm head!" James retorted. "I'm supposed to do all the dangerous stuff, keep you guys safe!"

"Well, you can't do that if you're dead!" Sirius screamed back under his breath.

Before the argument could progress further, Lily's voice echoed through the school. "Wake up, everyone, please. Everybody, please wake up and give me your attention. If there is someone in your dorm who is not awake, wake them up now. Are you all listening? Thank you. We have a problem on the third floor, and we need you all to evacuate the school. This is not a drill, but please _do not panic_. Everything is under control. Just evacuate like you have in the drills, and you will all be fine. Prefects, go with the rest of the school. Everyone avoid the Charms corridor, and the whole of the third floor if possible. Go now."

As she finished speaking, Lily and Suzy came running down the Charms corridor. Seeing the others' confused looks, Lily shrugged. "I couldn't let everyone stay here and die!" she snapped at them.

"I didn't even think of that," James confessed. "Great job taking care of it." Lily blushed slightly.

Footsteps sounded in the corridor. Alice huffed and went over to direct whoever it was to get out of here.

"MacDonald?" she said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I can help," Mary said breathlessly. "I know how to stop the demon."

Group A exchanged glances. "We never said anything about a demon," James said carefully.

"Of course it's a demon!" Mary snapped. They were all surprised; nobody had ever heard docile little Mary MacDonald raise her voice. "I know what it is, and I know how to stop it."

They stared at her. "How?" Remus asked.

"It's complicated," Mary said. "Please, you have to trust me!" She turned pleadingly towards the girls. "I know you don't like me, I know I've been awful to you, but I can help with this! I know about demons!"

"Are you sure about this?" Lily asked.

"Yes!" Mary yelled. Glancing at the classroom door, which had begun to smoke, she said, "We don't have much time. Can we please _go_?"

"All right," Lily said. She turned to the others and asked, "Ready to go fight a demon?"

"No," they chorused.

"Wonderful," Mary said. "Let's go." As they crept across the classroom, she whispered, "I just need you lot to keep me alive until I can get to him. This spell takes a minute or two to set up."

"All right," James said. "Circle her," he directed the others. They did so, and drew their wands. They all continued to creep forward towards the battle. "Now!" James whispered.

Spell after spell flew from Group A's wands as they used every trick they had to try to contain the demon. Mary crouched on the floor, murmuring in Latin under her breath and drawing complex designs in the air with her wand.

"No!" Whifferdill cried. "Go! This is my battle!"

"Do you _want_ to die?" Remus demanded as he threw a particularly complex spell at the demon. "Cause that's what's going to happen if you don't let us help!"

"Actually," Sirius said conversationally. "We'll probably all die tonight. But at least we'll go down in history as the heroic teenagers who sacrificed their lives to try to save their teacher. You'll just be known as a stupid, idiotic, arrogant prat who used the worst sort of Dark Magic and almost destroyed Hogwarts."

"I'm ready," Mary whispered. "Get out of my way. I need to talk to the demon."

"Are you mad?" Suzy hissed. "You're going to die!"

"Maybe," Mary admitted. "But the demon will be gone."

"Mary..." Lily was at a loss of words. She finally settled on, "I'm sorry."

"No," Mary said. "I'm sorry. I treated you horribly, Lily. Now, please let me go talk to that demon."

There were tears in every member of Group A's eyes as they moved out of her way. "Est tempus!" Mary shouted.

"Nooo!" Whifferdill howled.

"Yyooouu dare?" the demon hissed.

Mary smiled as she continued to yell and gesture with her wand. "Ire! Relinquere hoc terra!" With a howl, the demon exploded into a million fragments of orange flame. When Group A could see again, Mary was lying on the ground and Whifferdill had vanished.

"Mary!" Lily ran to her. "Alice, Frank," she called. "Help me!"

Alice knelt at Mary's head and waved her wand over her head. She performed a few other basic tests, then shook her head sadly. "She's gone."

"No!" Lily cried. "She can't be! We were just talking, she can't be dead!"

James laid a hand on her shoulder. "There's nothing more we can do for her."

"We should go," Remus said in a choked voice.

"No!" Lily yelled. She turned and glared at her friends. "How can you be so heartless?" she demanded.

"Lily..." Sirius started.

"Go," James mouthed to the others. They left the room, shaking their heads. All of their faces were white with shock and most of them were starting to sob.

James didn't say anything; there was nothing to say. He just stood there looking at Lily as she looked at her dead roommate and cried.

Finally, she raised her head and the expression on her face was so heartbroken that James couldn't resist taking her into his arms. She laid her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his chest. Suddenly, all James could think about was how long he had wanted to do this. Now it was finally happening, but only because Lily was in shock. _She'd never do this if she didn't just watch her friend die,_ James thought. But he couldn't help holding onto the little bubble of hope that had risen in his heart.

Suddenly, the door burst open. James and Lily started and pulled apart. Peter stood there, gasping for breath. "Death Eaters...invading the castle..."

"What?" James gasped, jumping to his feet.

"Death Eaters," Peter repeated. "Coming now. We saw them as the last students were evacuating."

"Are the students who signed up to fight still here?" Lily asked.

Peter shook his head. "About half of them are gone."

"What about the DEWs?"

"About half are still here, and the other half's joined the Death Eaters."

"Go," James told Peter. "Get to the Ministry. We might be able to hold the Death Eaters off for a bit, but not for too long. They're our only hope."

"Good luck," Lily added.

"You too!" Peter yelled over his shoulder as he raced out of the room to a fireplace he could Floo from.

As he left, the rest of Group A ran in. For a moment, they all just stared at each other.

Remus broke the silence. "Well..." he said. "I guess this is it, then."

Alice drew Frank off to the side of the room. "I love you," she told him. "And if you die today, I'll never speak to you again."

Suzy went over to where Lily still stood, next to Mary's body. "You okay?" she asked.

Lily shook her head. "As well as I could be, I guess."

"There aren't that many Death Eaters," Suzy said reassuringly. "And everyone's well trained, thanks to you and James. You guys did a great job, and you'll do amazingly again today. There's no guarantee that we'll all come out of here unscratched - in fact, we're all going to get hurt today, one day or another. But that's not your fault. Do you understand that, Lily? _It's not your fault._ It's the fault of those Death Eaters out there, and the fault of the Ministry for forcing you into this position. Don't blame yourself for _anything_ that's happening, okay? Not one thing. Cause it's not your fault. If I die today, _it's not your fault_. Got that? Good."

Lily's face was pale. "Don't die," she whispered to her friend. "None of you die, you hear me?" she called out to the room. "If you do, I will murder you personally. Be safe."

Sirius reached out and gave James a hug. "Be careful," he told his best mate thickly. "Knowing you, you'll run right into the thick of things and get yourself killed. Then I won't have anyone to prank with. So don't do anything stupid, okay?"

James nodded and opened the hug to Remus. "You both had better get out of this alive," he said. "Forget your Gryffindor courage, chivalry, whatever. Just keep yourself safe, okay? Get the Death Eaters out, too, and try to keep the others alive, but you're the top priority. Got that?"

"Yes, sir!" they said together, saluting him. They were still laughing as everyone gathered back together to receive their last pep-talk from James and Lily.

"Be careful," James said. "This is going to be a bloody fight. Our first priority is not to kill Death Eaters, it's to kick them out. Don't kill unless you have to, but remember this is the enemy. Do your best to keep the others safe, and, above all, don't get yourselves killed." He looked at all of them, imprinting their faces in his mind. Then he turned to his co-head. "You've got anything to say, Lily?"

She shook her head. "You said it all. Just be careful, all of you, and don't die. Please don't die."

"All right," James said. "You all know where you're going?" They all nodded; they had done this drill over, and over, and over, and over again. "Then let's go."

Everyone gave each other one last hug, and everyone left the room to man their posts. Only Lily and James were left.

"Lily," James said hesitantly, wondering how to tell her what was in his heart. He was still very much in love with her, but wasn't sure if she could ever view him as more than a friend. _Whoever said that half a loaf is better than one is an idiot_, he thought. Every day that he was friends with Lily caused him to fall more in love with her, as he was seeing sides of her that he had only ever glimpsed before. The close proximity in which they had to work was infuriating, and it was only the knowledge that she would most likely go back to hating him if he broke the contract they had made at the beginning of the year.

Lily had completely forgotten that they had ever made that deal. Being friends with James seemed so natural now that she couldn't imagine why she had never listened when Remus tried to tell her that he wasn't just the arrogant prat he was around her. She was sure now that she was in love with him, something she had suspected since sixth year. She also knew that he truly had love her. What she didn't know was that he was still heads over heels in love with her, that he had been so afraid of messing their friendship that he was just being super careful not to let her see his love. She was pretty well convinced that he had gotten over her.

"Yes?" she asked now, her heart beating quicker than usual. _It's just pre-battle jitters,_ she told herself. _It's got nothing to do with James._

"I just wanted you to know," James started, then paused. He still had no idea what he was going to say. He decided to just go with the basic truth. "I'm still in love with you. I wasn't going to tell you, not for a while, at least, but, well, this battle pretty much changes everything. For one thing, I don't want you to die without knowing, and I don't want to die without you knowing, so I decided just to tell you, cause there's not really much you can do to me now, and I do know that I'm breaking the pact we made at the beginning of the year, but I really didn't have much of a choice, again thanks to this battle. And I know you don't return the feelings, so I'm not even going to ask you out again, and I _am _very sorry," he said very quickly. Then he turned on his heel and ran out of the room.

Lily stood frozen, not quite sure she had just heard what she just heard. "He still loves me," she whispered. Then, "HE STILL LOVES ME!" Laughing, Lily added, "The prat! Why in the name of Merlin didn't he tell me earlier?" Suddenly, she remembered that there was a battle to be fought. She ran out of the room to defend her school.

As she flew through the halls, she saw that the entire castle was preparing. Suzy waved to her as she led the house elves from the kitchen. The people in the paintings on the wall picked up their belongings and children and fled from their homes. Students were everywhere, it seemed, running frantically from place to place, saying quick goodbye-and-good-lucks. Sirius had a group of twenty of their top duelers around him. "You all know your spots?" he asked them as Lily passed. They nodded. "Good," he said. "Go, then, and be careful." They ran off to go patrol the border.

Suddenly, a huge bang rocked the school. Screams echoed through the halls. Remus went sprinting past Lily, his group of students following him. "Let's go defeat some Death Eaters!" he yelled to them. They replied with deafening cheers.

Suddenly, Death Eaters were everywhere: inside the castle and outside, moving from place to place faster than Lily would have imagined possible. Alice and Frank and their assistants soon had their hands full getting the injured out of the way.

Lily's voice soon was hoarse from shouting spells, and her leg muscles burned from running through the school. Unlike everyone else, she and James had no designated place to be, no specific job to do. They were there to oversee everything, to be wherever they were needed.

The light of the sun was completely gone, and they were fighting by moonlight, when Lily's wand vibrated. It was a 6th year Gryffindor who had signed up to stay and fight. "Potter's down," he told Lily.

She instantly stopped running. Clutching her wand in her suddenly chilled hand, she asked, in as calm a voice as she could muster, "Where is he?"

"Out by Hagrid's cabin," he responded.

"How badly is he hurt?" Lily asked, starting to run towards the front doors of the castle.

"It's bad," the 6th year said. "He's out cold."

"Is he breathing?"

"Barely."

"Pulse?"

"Weak."

"What happened to him?"

"I think he was dueling one of the Death Eaters. I don't know who, though. I just found him lying on the ground."

"Have you notified once of the mediwizards?"

"Not yet. I knew you'd want to be the first to know."

"Go tell them now. I'm on my way."

"Okay."

With a loud bang, Lily stunned the Death Eater who was standing by the front doors. She raced through them and down to Hagrid's hut. She was almost there when Peter burst through the main gates and shouted, "The Ministry's coming!" The Hogwartians shouted with joy, some of them breaking into relieved tears. The Death Eaters looked, panicked, towards Bellatrix, who was leading the assault.

"ALL LOYAL SERVANTS OF THE DARK LORD RETREAT!" she yelled, fury clear on her face. She hated retreating, but the Dark Lord's orders had been clear: if the Ministry interferes, leave.

Meanwhile, Lily had not been partaking in the glee that was rapidly spreading throughout her comrades. She was still sprinting towards Hagrid's hut, and James. When she got there, she saw the boy who had notified her shouting dares and insults at the retreating Death Eaters. "Shut it," she snapped at him, then turned to James, and froze.

He looked dead. Lying motionless on the ground, his glasses lay askew on his ashen face. They were shattered, no glass left in the lenses. His hair, which sometimes looked alive as it flew above his face, lay limp around his head, almost like a black halo. His face was the worse - his face, always so alive, whether with joy, anger, or sorrow, was blank. His eyes were closed, all his muscles relaxed. As Lily dropped to her knees beside him, she literally felt her heart breaking. She took his cold wrist into her hand and felt for a pulse. It took her a long moment to find it, it was so weak.

Feeling giddy with relief - he was alive! - Lily set to work on James, just doing the basic spells that would keep him alive until Alice or Frank arrived. They must have worked, because after a moment or two he stirred, and his eyes opened.

"Lily?" he whispered.

"I'm here," she whispered back. "You'll be okay."

He smiled weakly at her. "Are you all right?"

She nodded. "Who did this to you?" Silence. "James..."

"Promise me you won't go after him?" he said.

"I can't do that!"

"Promise."

"No. Tell me, and I'll go murder him."

"Don't!" A coughing fit overtook James as he tried to sit up. Lily pushed him down and glared at him.

"Tell me, James. I'll force it out of you if I have to."

James sighed. She would use force if he didn't tell her. "Snape."

She gaped at him. "Snape? Severus did this to you?" Before he could answer, she was on her feet. "I'm going to kill him!"

"No!" James tried to sit up again, but fell back, coughing. "He'll kill you!" he said as soon as he had the breath.

"Not me, he won't." But part of the fire burning in Lily's eyes seemed to dim. On impulse, she leaned down and pressed her lips to James'. "Love you," she whispered. Then she was gone, racing after the man who had once been her best friend.

**A/N: This story is currently be rewritten. At the moment, I have a bunch of chapters sitting on my computer that need just to be edited. Therefore, updates should be FAR more frequent. All the chapters on here have been edited, but no major changes have been made except to Chapter 2: Childhoods, which has been completely rewritten.**

**Thank you so much to everyone who has favorited, reviewed, or added me to my alert list. I love you all. **


	14. Severus and Suzy

"Sev!" Lily yelled, running towards the gates that surrounded Hogwarts. "Severus, wait up for a moment!"

One of the last Death Eaters leaving looked back at the young woman he loved, and hesitated for a moment. Then he squared his shoulders and continued to follow the Death Eaters.

"Severus, please!" Lily begged. She had reached the Death Eaters, now. "I just need to talk to you for one minute! Less, even!"

"Go to your mudblood girlfriend," Bellatrix hissed at Snape. "Talk to her, and get any information you can. Then do your duty to the Dark Lord. Kill her!" Laughing, she shoved him forward.

"What is it?" Severus asked Lily coldly. "You've told me many times that we have nothing more to say to each other."

"That was before you started messing with my heart," Lily said, and for a moment, Severus's heart leapt. Was it possible that she loved him back?

"What...what do you mean?" he asked, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer.

"I mean," she said, stepping forward and jabbing him in the chest with her wand. "Your duel with James."

Potter. Severus' head swam. "So he's James now?" he hissed. "Are you mad? He's going to take your heart, tear it to shreds, and spit it back in your face!"

"He can't betray me worse than you have," Lily retorted. Sparks flew from her wand as she pulled it back. In her mind, she yelled, _Levicorpus!_ Snape barely managed to block the spells.

"Don't do this, Lily," he begged her. "Please don't do this!"

"That's Evans to you, Snivellus," she snapped back, throwing a stinging jinx at him. This time, he was faster to block the spell, but another was close behind. Soon, it was all Severus could do to stay on his feet.

"Kill her!" Bellatrix yelled. "Kill the filthy mudblood!"

For a moment, Severus hesitated. "Too cowardly, Snivelly?" Lily taunted him. Snape's face tightened and he sent a hex Lily's way. Her face was shining with perspiration as she fought, and her hair was flying every which way, most of it having escaped from her braid. Her clothes were ripped nearly to shreds; her skin was torn and bloody. A purple bruise flourished on her right arm, and her eye was blackened. Severus thought that she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen.

But she was Potter's now; she had chosen the boy who should be her enemy over her life-long friend. She claimed he had betrayed her, but hadn't she just betrayed him? Breaking his heart into a billion tiny pieces was betrayal, wasn't it? The more Snape dwelled on her incomprehensible love for Potter, the more he hated her.

With a snarl, he truly began to duel her. He was vaguely aware of Bellatrix screaming, "Kill the mudblood!" in the background, vaguely aware that a crowd of Hogwartians had formed behind Lily. But all he saw was the girl - no, the woman in front of him.

Lily, too, was wholly focused on Snape. All of Hogwarts knew that Lily's fury was a force to be reckoned with, but this was taking it to a whole new level. A blind rage had engulfed her when she saw what Snape had done to James; for all she knew, he could have killed the man she loved. All other concerns were tossed aside. All that mattered was that Snape pay for his crimes.

Finally, Snape had Lily in the place where he knew he should go in for the kill. "Kill the mudblood!" Bellatrix was still chanting in the background. It would be so easy, he knew. He also knew that if he hesitated, and any of his "allies" noticed, he would be killed. _It's her or you,_ a small, nasty voice in the back of his head said. _All right, then,_ his heart and soul replied. _It'll be me._

In the second it took him to reach that decision, Lily saw that Snape's resolve was faltering. Knowing this could be her only chance, she snatched at it. With a triumphant yell, she threw one last spell at him, and that was all that was needed. As Snape fell to the ground, everyone heard his bones breaking, and winced.

"Get out," Lily said. Her voice sounded strangely like that of an angel to Severus, despite her harsh tone. "All of you get out, and never come near this place again. You can tell your precious Dark Lord that we're not afraid of him. Hogwarts will stand strong against him as long as he continues to kill and torture our friends and family. Voldemort will fall soon to us!" Turning to the crowd at her back, Lily raised her wand and yelled, "Dumbledore and Hogwarts!"

They roared back, some throwing a few last spells at the Death Eaters. Before the dark witches and wizards could respond, there were about 50 simulations pops. The Ministry had arrived.

Nobody had coherent memories about what happened next. Most of the Death Eaters disapperated. Those were still on Hogwarts grounds or who hesitated for a moment or two to send a last curse into the crowd were taken prisoner. The Hogwartians surged forward to greet their saviors, some of them nearly stepping on Lily, who had fallen to the ground. Alice ran to her and handed her a potion.

"Drink this," she ordered. "It'll help with the pain and exhaustion."

Wearily, Lily raised her head and glugged the potion down, gagging as it hit her taste buds. "What _is _that?" she demanded.

Alice grinned. "A nifty little potion Frank brewed up. It works miracles. Not Ministry approved, of course, but who really cares at this point?"

"We do," a dry voice said behind her. Alice and Lily both jumped out of their skin. Ptolemy Elphick, Minister of Magic, stood there, looking very imposing in his impeccable Ministry robes. "Would the two of you be so kind as to come with me?"

Alice stood up and said, with only the barest of quivers in her voice, "I'm sorry sir, but that won't be possible. Not for a while, anyway. We have a few things that we need to take care of, and Lily needs to rest."

Elphick's lips thinned into what, on a normal human being, might resemble an impatient smile. "I'm afraid I must insist."

"It's fine," Lily said. "Could you give us just one minute to get organized?"

Only Elphick's eyes showed his annoyance. "If you must," he said, and left, "Doubtless to go warn the others of how insubordinate we are," Alice said.

"Let's go find the others," Lily said. As Alice opened her mouth to say something, but didn't, Lily's stomach clenched and she said, "We _can_ go see the others, can't we?"

"Of course," Alice said, forcing a smile. "They're just over here." She led Lily over to the Whomping Willow.

"James!" Lily cried, seeing him on his feet. He opened his arms, and she fell into them. "You're okay," she whispered. "I was so worried he had killed you."

"I saw your duel," he said. "And heard what you said. It was...impressive."

"Thank you," she whispered, pulling away and looking at the others.

They were a somber bunch. None of them had escaped unscratched. Sirius looked as though he had been in a barroom brawl, and Frank and Alice were both covered in blood, though it seemed to be mostly other people's. Suzy...

"Where's Suzy?" Lily demanded. "And Remus?"

The others exchanged looks. "In the Shrieking Shack," Alice said at last.

"Are they..." Lily couldn't say it.

"You have to see for yourself," Sirius said. He glanced at the sky. It was tinged pink by the rising sun. "Come on."

James picked up a stick and poked at a knot on the Whomping Willow, which stopped trying to whomp them and froze. One by one, they all slipped down the passageway towards the Shrieking Shack.

The first thing Lily saw as she entered was blood. It was everywhere; on the ripped chairs, on the floor, even on the ceiling. Some of it was dried and clearly very old; Lily winced and assumed that it was from when the Marauders would come here to keep Remus contained. Most of the stuff on the floor, however, was recent. Lily followed the trail it left, and found Remus, kneeling on the ground. His shoulders shook with sobs.

Sirius crossed the room and laid a hand on his friend's shoulder. James knelt down and wrapped an arm around him. Alice and Frank went over, too, but to the other side of whatever they were all crouched around. They pulled out their wands and went to work.

Lily went cold. There was only one explanation for all this, only one thing that everyone would be so worried about. She went over, and her worst fears were realized. Suzy lay there, in her own blood. Her body looked as though someone had tried to grate it, like you would cheese. Her face alone remained intact. That was the worst - the peacefulness of her face, as though she were asleep, was in sharp contrast to the rest of her body.

"No," Lily gasped. "Suzy! No!" She collapsed on the ground next to her friend. Alice was sobbing as she held Lily. When she could speak again, Lily asked, "How?" She didn't trust herself to say more.

"It was all my fault," Remus said. Instantly his friends disagreed.

"You couldn't help it!"

"It was our fault, for forgetting!"

"It was a full moon tonight," Lily said, suddenly realizing what must have happened.

Remus nodded. "When I changed, I came here. It was habit, I guess. Suzy..." He couldn't go on.

Sirius took up the tale, for once in his life channeling the emotion his name suggested. "She was here, with the house elves. You know how she loves...how she loved them. We think she heard him coming, because there were only a few house elves left when he got here." Lily noticed absently that Sirius wasn't using Remus' name, was trying to separate the monster who had done this awful deed from his friend. And they were completely different entities. But everyone in Group A knew that Remus wouldn't see it that way, that he would blame himself. Sirius was trying to spare his friend pain, and Lily distantly recognized that there could still be good in the world, though Suzy was gone.

"She defended them," Remus said, his voice choked with constrained sobs. "Tried to hold me off. I think part of me knew I...I shouldn't kill-" His voice broke, and with it Remus' restraint. His sobs escaped, but only for a moment. Remus had something to say, and he had to say it then. "I loved her," he admitted. "I never told anyone. Now...now I wish I had told her. We might have been able to spend some time together...I loved her, and I killed her."

There is nothing you can say to a confession like that. Sirius' hand on Remus' shoulder tightened, and Frank reached across Suzy and gripped the other one. James held him tight, knowing in a way how Remus felt. Alice and Lily held each other and cried. Separate, their pain was unmanageable. Together, there was a slim chance of survival.


	15. The Ministry of Magic

Lily sighed and brushed her hair away from her face. Glancing down at her body, she groaned. "I'm a mess," she muttered.

"Good," Alice, who had climbed out of the Whomping Willow behind her, said. "It'll show you were fighting."

"Do I have to go?" Sirius' voice echoed as he scrambled out of the underground passageway.

"Yes!" four other voices chorused as the remaining members of Group A followed him.

"No way you're getting out of this," James said. "We all share the torture equally."

"Let's go," Lily said abruptly. She didn't want to remember Suzy's broken body, Remus' heartbroken face, all the others who had been wounded or killed in that horrible battle."The Minister will be waiting. We said we'd only been a few minutes, and it's almost been an hour."

Sure enough, when they reached the Great Hall, the Minister and his people looked very impatient. "I am a busy man," Elphick said as they approached him. "I do not have all day. I expected you to be prompt!"

"Shut it, will you?" Sirius demanded. The others turned to him, Lily and James automatically opening their mouths to rebuke him, but they all remained silent. He was right, and the Minister needed to know that. "In the last few hours we've battled a demon, seen one of our year-mates die, dueled Death Eaters, including some of our classmates, thought we had lost two of our best friends, then saw that we hadn't only to learn that one of our other best friends was dead. And what did you do?"

"Saved your ungrateful skins," a young woman dressed in hideous pink robes said. She had a strange resemblance to a toad.

"And we thank you for that," James said. "But you just did that by showing up. You didn't actually _do_ anything."

"We don't deny that we'd be dead meat if it weren't for you," Lily said. "But we wouldn't have even been in this position if not for you, so it kind of evens itself out."

"Why you-" the toad-like woman began, but Elphick cut her off.

"Dolores, would you please be quiet!" he demanded. "You've already proved you can't handle relations with this school!"

"Dolores?" James said. "You wrote that horrid letter to us?"

"Yes, I'm afraid she did," Elphick said. "I'm very sorry about that. Dolores is a little...enthusiastic."

"Maniacal is more like it," Sirius muttered.

"But I'm afraid she does have a point." Elphick spread his arms wide, trying to encompass all of the damaged school. "How can you blame us for this? You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters are the ones to blame!"

"Of course they are," Lily said. "Nobody's arguing about that."

"But," James pointed out. "They wouldn't have attacked us if Lily and I weren't in charge."

"So how is that our fault?" the Minister asked.

Group A exchanged disbelieving glances. "Are you mad?" Sirius exclaimed.

"Will you shush and let James and Lily handle this?" Frank hissed at him. Elphick looked on him with approval.

"Longbottom, is it? Your father was a great asset to the Auror department."

"Was?" Frank asked.

"Goodness me, you didn't know?" Elphick said, looking truly astonished. "Your father was killed in combat two months ago!"

The little bit of color Frank had regained drained once again from his face. "Why is he just learning this now?" Alice demanded. "Two months! Two months, and he didn't even know? Does his mum know?"

Elphick looked very uncomfortable. "I don't know," he admitted. "You would have to ask the Auror department."

Still glaring at him, Alice took Frank's arm and led him away, her eyes daring anyone to protest. No one was foolish enough to.

Elphick cleared his throat. "May we get down to business, then?" he asked. "I believe it might be simpler if just the three of us spoke in private," he told James and Lily.

"No," Lily said instantly.

James seconded her. "This lot is as much in charge of the school as we are. They're staying."

Elphick shrugged. "Then you'll have no objection, I trust, to allowing my people to stay as well?"

"Of course," Lily said. Group A went over to their usual spot at the head of the Gryffindor table. Many students were in the hall, eating, getting healed, or just talking. Quite a few of them stopped Group A as they passed.

"Are you okay?" some called across the room. James and Lily smiled and waved.

"That was a wicked duel," someone told Lily. She smiled and thanked him.

The male Hufflepuff 6th year prefect came up to them, his eyes red and puffy from crying. "Anabel's joined her sister," he told them softly. Lily could literally feel another hole being torn in her heart.

"Can we not go somewhere private?" the Minister wanted to know.

James shook his head. "The students know everything that's going on here. If you can say it in front of us, you can say it in front of them."

Elphick sighed. "The more I see of this school, the more I see that you lot are not suited to run it," he said. Seeing the looks of offence on Group A's faces and hearing the outraged protests from the other students, he quickly added. "Not that you haven't tried, and done your best, but it's just not reasonable to have teenagers running their school and trying to learn!" For once, Group A was almost in charity with Elphick, until he continued, "What was Dumbledore thinking, proposing this?"

They gaped at him. "What was _Dumbledore_ thinking?" Sirius said. "This isn't his fault! It's yours! What were _you_ thinking?"

Elphick shook his head. "It is sad to see such young people so corrupted," he mourned. "I'm afraid that your headmaster did not give you the whole story. He seems to have told you that we demanded his assistance, and that of his teachers. In truth, he volunteered them."

"And why should we believe you?" Lily demanded. "Dumbledore's not stupid! He knew that this was going to turn into a mess! He would never volunteer himself and his teachers and left us with this mess!"

"I was afraid you were going to say that," Elphick said sadly. "That's why I brought his letter to you." He reached into his bag and pulled out a roll of parchment. "See, right there," he said, pointing to a spot about three-fourths of the way down.

Ignoring him, Lily took the parchment and read the whole thing through. Then she passed it to James and sat back in her seat, looking incredulously at Elphick. "You're mad," she said softly. "Completely barking, if you think that argument will stand up in court."

Elphick smiled thinly. "It already has."

"Only because you control the courts," James said, passing the letter to the others. "If they were truly unbiased, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on. That letter promises sanctuary for any Aurors who happen to be in the area, and...what was the phrase?" He snatched the letter back from Remus. "Oh, yes, here we are. 'And of course, if you ever need any advice or other reasonable assistance, my staff and I will be happy to help. We all wish to do our part in defeating Voldemort.' _Advice_, Minister. _Reasonable assistance._ Not fighting, not being taken away from the school, not being forced to leave teenagers in charge. This is your mess, and yours alone. You won't get us to speak against Dumbledore."

Lily stood up. "Come on," she told her friends. "We're done here."

"I didn't want things to come to this," Elphick said, calmly drawing his wand. "But if you leave me no choice. You're either for us, or against us. I hereby arrest James Potter and Lily Evans for treason!"

"Are you mad?" Sirius screamed at him.

"We've got this," Remus said, speaking for the first time since they had left the Shrieking Shack. "You two need to leave, now."

"But-" James started to protest.

"There's no point!" Sirius hissed at him. "You and Lily have to get out of here!" Without waiting for an answer, he yelled, "FALL BACK! GET TO YOUR SAFE HOUSE LEADERS!"

"GO!" Remus yelled at his friends. "You're just making things worse by staying."

"We'll contact you as soon as we can," Lily told them. "Good luck. And thank you." With a quick wave, she pulled James out of the Great Hall.

It took almost an hour for things to calm down completely. Every three or four minutes a group would dash out of the Great Hall under the cover of the others' fighting. They would run to the edge of school grounds, then disapparate to whatever safe house they were assigned to. This was the part of the battle plan that had taken Group A the longest to set up. The evacuees needed somewhere to go, and it was unlikely that they would be able to return for quite some time. Everyone needed someplace where it was safe to wait until the school was ready for their return.

Setting up the safe-houses was a school-wide effort. Everyone wrote to the people that they knew they could trust, asking if they were willing to help. Many weren't, but enough were. Group A tested them thoroughly to make sure they were trustworthy, then helped them set up safe-guards around their house. All in all, they had almost fifty places where students could go.

When the Ministry finally realized that the students were leaving, only Group A and the students they were assigned to take were left.

"Arrest them all," the Minister ordered. But he had reckoned without the Marauders. Alice and Frank took all the students and made a mad dash for the door as the Marauders held the Ministry off with their most obscure and disastrous pranks. They never went anywhere without their basic pranking kit, which consisted of their wand, a few Dr. Fillubusters', and a zillion Zonko's products. While they weren't exactly weapons, the pranking materials worked wonders as distractions. Everyone was able to get safely away.

Deep within the Forbidden Forest, Lily and James had run into a spot of trouble. When they left the Great Hall, there were still Ministry officials patrolling the grounds. There was no chance that they could have gotten past them. So, they turned to the one place that was left unguarded: the forest.

"You know," Lily had said as they sprinted towards the trees. "The reason they're not guarding it is because you'd have to be mad to go in there!"

"It's not so bad," James said. "The animals know me. We're almost friends with them."

"Centaurs?" Lily asked, panting.

"They tolerate us," James gasped out. As they entered the forest, they slowed to a jog, but it wasn't until they were long out of sight of the school grounds that they allowed themselves to walk.

Things were pretty peaceful for a while. As James had said, the animals of the forest knew and liked the Marauders, who had spent a ridiculous amount of time in there. They were especially grateful to James, Sirius, and Peter, who stopped Remus from harming their kin every full moon.

Then, just as Lily was getting used to being in the forest (being a good little girl, she had never spent any time there before), they heard twigs snapping, and a centaur hunting party appeared before them.

"We allowed you access to our forest in return for your control over the werewolf," one of them said. He seemed to be their leader. "But now the Ministry has followed you. We cannot tolerate that."

James hand found Lily's and grasped it tight. She glared at him, but heeded the warning and stayed silent. "You are more than capable of handling the Ministry," he said. "You can drive them out without any help from us."

"At the risk of losing our own," the lead centaur replied. "The Ministry is strong. We must ask you to leave our forest." With that, most of the centaurs turned and galloped into the forest. Only one remained, a young, blond centaur.

"My people are foolish," he said. "They see the warnings in the stars, but choose not to act. Come. I will lead you from the forest." He trotted off. Lily looked to James.

"Come on," he whispered to her. His hand was still wrapped around hers. "We can trust Firenze."

It seemed to Lily that they ran for hours after Firenze, and when they finally came to a stop, she could tell that it was dusk.

"Why are we stopping?" James asked, panting. "Not that I'm complaining," he hurried to add as Lily glared at him. "But we're still in the middle of the forest."

"I can go no farther," Firenze said. "The magic of the forest ends here. These are muggle woods from here. Go, and good luck."

"Thank you!" Lily and James called after him as he trotted back into the Forbidden Forest. Lily looked around, an involuntary smile resting on her lips.

"What are you so pleased about?" James demanded.

"What?" Jerked out of her trance, Lily looked at him, surprised.

"You were smiling about something," James said. "What was it? I could use something cheerful to think about."

'Oh, it was nothing. It's just...this place looks like the forest where my family used to go camping. It brings back a lot of memories of a happier time, that's all."

"Have you heard from them much this year?" James asked softly. He didn't want to pry, but if Lily was willing to talk, he was very curious about her family. Though she was very open on every other subject, she never mentioned her life at home.

"No," she replied. "My mum's still mad at me about not coming home for Christmas, and my dad...well, I do hear from him, but things are so different for them! It's almost like they live in a parallel universe, or something. They don't have to worry about Voldemort, or-"

"You said it," James interrupted, surprised.

"What?"

"You said Voldemort."

"Did I? I stopped thinking of him as You-Know-Who a while ago. It seems silly to call him that. After all, he's going to try to kill us either way."

James nodded. "Yeah. My parents call him by his name, and I've kind of picked up on it."

"They're friends of Dumbledore's, aren't they?"

"Very close. Though I think he was already teaching when they went to Hogwarts."

"How old is he, anyway? He was already old when he defeated Grindelwald, and that was in 1945!"

"Nobody knows. He's old, that's all. But it doesn't slow him down any."

"Do you think he'll help us?" Lily asked, a little wistfully. "We haven't heard a thing from him all year."

"He won't desert us," James said confidently. "We've gotten ourselves into Merlin's own mess. He'll help us out."

"Do you want to camp here tonight?" Lily asked, changing the subject rather abruptly. It had hurt that Dumbledore hadn't made any effort to contact them while he was away. They had seen most of the other teachers at least once since they all left, though their stays at Hogwarts had become less and less frequent as time progressed. But even while they were away, many of them would take time out of their days to send an owl to the school with pieces of advice such as how to brew a certain potion, or to be sure to teach a certain spell, because it'll most definitely be on the OWLs. Dumbledore, on the other hand, had been completely silent.

"Sure," James said. "It looks as good a spot as any." He glanced at the sky and sighed. "I guess it is too late to just get to my house."

"Well, how long of a walk is it?" Lily asked.

"About an hour," James said. "Through pretty rough terrain. We can't do it tonight; at least, I can't. Would you mind camping?"

"Of course not!" Lily said. "We probably should cross to the muggle forest, though."

To do so, they had to ford a small stream, which wasn't hard, but left them both damp. "Ugh," Lily said, shaking out her legs. "Would you mind setting up the sleeping bags? I'll do the spells."

"Sure," James said. Within minutes, everything was set up. Every student had a pack that they were required to carry on them at all times. In it was a sleeping bag, an extra set of clothes, a small packet of food, and a toothbrush and toothpaste. Each student was also allowed to put up to three small valuables in there. James had chosen an old, beat up, dented watch that had been in his family for generations, and two framed photographs: one of his parents and Harriett, and one of the Marauders. Lily had chosen an old, worn out copy of _If You Give a Mouse a Cookie..._, her favorite book. She also had a small scrapbook with pictures of her muggle friends, Hogwarts friends, and family, and the first letter her parents had ever sent to her at school.

To make it easier to constantly have the packs on, they were all spelled to be incredibly light and small. Remus had also found a nifty little spell that made them very inconspicuous. It wasn't a disillusionment charm, or the spell that hid the Leaky Cauldron, but it was similar to both.

Now, it was easy for James to set up their camp as Lily walked in a small circle and spelled the area so that nobody would be able to find them. When she was done, she and James sat down for dinner. It was only then that James remembered something he'd been meaning to ask Lily for a while.

"How did Mary know how to stop that demon?" he asked her. "That wasn't guesswork; she really knew. And it looked like she had practice."

Lily, who had just taken a large bite, almost choked. When she was able to speak, she said, "You didn't hear?"

"Hear what?" James asked.

"It's kind of a long story," Lily said. "And it's certainly a painful one. But I'll tell you if you want."

"Go ahead," James said, and so Lily began.


	16. Mary and Marlene

"It started during fourth year," Lily began. "You remember the scandal?"

"Of course," James said. "Avery did something to Mary, but no one ever knew what. Apparently his parents had to pull a million strings to stop him from getting expelled, though."

Lily nodded. "They claimed he was under the Imperius curse." She snorted. "As if. I was there, you know. I saw it all."

"Really?" James said. "I didn't know there were any eyewitnesses."

"Neither does anyone else," Lily said.

"Come on!" Mary tugged on Lily's arm. "Just drop the dumb book already! We're going to be late for the match!"

"Just let me finish my chapter!" Lily cried. "It'll only take me one more minute."

"That's what you said ten minutes ago!"

"And then you went and yelled at me for those ten minutes. How am I supposed to read when you're yelling at me?"

"Harumph."

A minute later...

"Are you done yet?"

"Just one more second..."

"One one thousand. Okay, are you done now?"

"How many times have I told you I CAN'T READ WHILE YOU TALK AT ME!"

"All right, all right! I'm sorry! Can you please just finish though?"

"There!" Lily slammed the book shut and sprang to her feet. "Let's go."

The halls were deserted as they raced through them. The Slytherin/Gryffindor match was the last one of the year, and even the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were all going. No one had wanted to miss a second of what promised to be the greatest match of the year, so they had all gotten there early. Only Mary and Lily were running late.

As they reached one corridor, however, they heard voices. "Go on, Avery, do it!" someone was yelling.

Lily pulled Mary to a stop. "That's Mulcibar," she whispered. "I bet they're all up to something awful."

"And we're just going to go to the match and not get invloved with this, right?" Mary said.

"We can't do that!" Lily cried, still whispering. "They could hurt someone!"

"They could hurt _us_," Mary muttered, but she followed Lily as she snuck over to the classroom the Slytherins were in.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Narcissa Black, the only girl in the room, asked.

"Don't be a sissy!" the youngest boy there, Narcissa's cousin Regulus, snapped. The others laughed loudly at his oh-so-hilarious joke.

"Shut it!" Yaxley, a 7th year known for his interest in the Dark Arts, commanded tersely. He seemed to be in command. He turned to Avery, who was standing at the front of the room. "Well?" he asked. "Are you going to do it?"

Avery hesitated for a moment, but the sight of so many eager eyes on him made his choice for him. "I will," he said. He raised his wand and cried, "For the Dark Lord!"

The others echoed his cry, and Avery dropped to the floor and began drawing a diagram and chanting in Latin. "Surge, Daemonum aqua. Ad me. Facere imperium. Iuvare me in purgans hoc schola omnes contagione."

"What are they doing?" Mary asked, her face pale and her voice no louder than a breath.

"I don't know," Lily whispered back. "But it's nothing good. We've got to stop it. You go get McGonagall, or Dumbledore, or somebody, and tell them what's going on here. I'll stay and stop them if things get out of hand."

"No!" Mary cried, louder than she meant to. Both girls glanced towards the Slytherins, but nobody seemed to have noticed. "We'll both go."

"We can't do that!" Lily hissed at her. "What if they finish the spell? They might be planning to destroy the school!"

"All right, then," Mary said. "I'll stay, and you go."

"No!" Lily said.

"The teachers will listen to you," Mary said. "They love you. Me?" She shrugged. "I'm a nobody." Seeing that Lily was unconvinced, Mary resorted to begging. "Please, Lily?"

"If you die, I'll kill you," Lily snarled at her, then reached out and crushed Mary in a hug. "Be careful," she whispered, and ran off to find the teachers.

"Of course," Lily said to James. "I shouldn't have gone. But you never saw Mary's puppy face, did you?"

James shook his head. "I barely knew her at all."

"Well, she was deathly afraid of the teachers. I don't know why, but she just couldn't talk to them unless one of us was there with her. I think the Slytherins were easier for her to deal with. But I still shouldn't have gone.

With Lily gone, Mary's alarm escalated as she watched the Slytherins encourage Avery in his gruesome spell. She watched as a cloud of dark blue flames formed within the diagram he had drawn, and how that cloud solidified into the vaguely humanoid shape of a demon.

"Wwwwwwwhy have you summoned meeeeee?" the demon hissed. It's voice was dark and oily and reminded Mary of poisonous ink.

"O demon, I have summoned you here to cleanse the school," Avery cried as the others cheered in the background.

"Clllllllllleanse the schoooooooool?" the demon repeated. If a demon's monotonous voice could sound surprised and offended, this one's did.

"Of Mudbloods," Avery clarified.

"Yooooooooooou will have to release meeeeeeee," the demon pointed out.

"And we will, as soon as you give us your true name, so that we shall know that we are safe from your wrath," Avery said. Mary had to admire his forethought. She hadn't thought that someone so dumb would have thought of that.

"My truuuue nammmmmmme?" the demon hissed. After a moment it said, "Very welllllllll. My true name is Rniezuhael."

With a wave of Avery's wand, the drawings that bound the demon vanished. "Rniezuhael!" Avery commanded. "Rid this noble school of the impurity of Mudbloods! Leave none alive, and kill all who would stop you! Leave myself and my comrades alone, however, or you will suffer the consequences!"

Laughing, two of the Slytherins strode over to the classroom door and threw it wide open. Mary, who had been watching the demon, was left standing there in plain sight.

"What's this?" Avery said. He darted to her side and pulled her into the room. "Your first victim, Rniezuhael!"

Screaming, Mary was laid down on the cold, hard floor and surrounded by the Slytherins, who were chanting, "Kill her! Cleanse the school! Kill her! Cleanse the school!"

As the demon rose above her, it seemed to Mary that he grew. Just as his black flame fingers were about to grab her, the door to the classroom was blasted off its hinges and Dumbledore strode in, closely followed by the heads of the houses and Lily.

"Ire, daemonium. Egredere de terra hac hos. Te non hic. Relinquere!" Dumbledore yelled, gesturing with his wand. There was a strange light in his eyes, one that was almost fanatical. Mary suddenly understood why her slightly mad, very old, quite kind, and harmless-looking headmaster was considered the most powerful wizard in the world. The demon didn't hesitate; it was gone within seconds. Unfortunately, so were most of the Slytherins. Though Mary and Lily could identify most of them, there was no additional proof, and since most of them belonged to powerful families, they got off with a suspension.

"Wow," James said. "I never knew any of that."

"We tried to keep it quiet," Lily said. "Everyone in my dorm knew, of course, and so did all the teachers. And the Ministry. You know how well trying to keep information from them works."

"So after that she learned how to vanish demons?" James asked.

Lily shook her head. "Not exactly. She figured she was safe. Most people don't run into a demon once in their lives, much less more than that. But that summer, we ran into another one."

Summer vacation. That magical time that every student longs for year long. And yet, summer has its drawbacks. For one thing, you don't get to see any of your friends, especially if you go to a boarding school. That was the concern foremost in Mary's mind as the Hogwarts Express pulled into King's Cross Station.

"I'll miss you so much!" she cried, throwing her arms around one of her best friends, Marlene. "I wish your mum had let you come with us!"

"I know!" Marlene said, returning the embrace. "It's so unfair that you lot get to be together and I have to spend time with my grandmother!"

"Marlene!" Lily cried. "You know that's not fair. You're grandmother is very ill. It's a good thing you're spending time with her while you still can."

"That's our Lily," Mary said. "Always being the nice one."

When they got off the train, Lily and Mary watched and waved as Marlene's mother dragged her off and Marlene mimicked hitting and kicking her. Laughing, they turned to Lily's parents.

"How are you, Mrs. Evans?" Mary asked politely. "I'm Mary MacDonald."

"It's so nice to finally meet you!" Mrs. Evans gushed. "Lily's told us oh so much about you. But please, call me Violet."

"Umm...all right," Mary said, a little overwhelmed by the enthusiastic welcome. _Is she always like this?_ she mouthed to Lily. Hiding a smile, Lily nodded. Suddenly, she was lifted off the ground as her father smothered her in a big hug.

"How's my flower?" he asked as he set her down.

Laughing, Lily said, "You have three flowers, Daddy. This one's doing great, though. Oh! This is Mary MacDonald. Mary, my dad."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Evans," Mary said, shaking his hand.

"It's Bob, please," he said. "Welcome to the family."

When they got to the Evans' house, they were met less than cheerfully by Lily's older sister, Petunia. She barely said a word to Mary, and seemed to enjoy pretending that Lily didn't exist.

"Were there any messages?" Violet asked her older daughter after dinner. Sullenly, Petunia nodded.

"That Snape boy called. He wanted to know when Lily was going to be home. I told him I didn't know."

Mrs. Evans sighed, wishing that Petunia had just told Lily that the instant they had arrived. But she was a smart woman and had long since given up trying to reconcile her children.

"Lily, dear?" she called. "You should call Severus. He wanted to know when we were getting home."

"I will," Lily called back, but didn't do so immediately. She and Mary were deep in discussion about when Alice and Frank would get together.

"They're too shy," Lily said. "I think we should do something!"

"We'd better not," Mary said. "After all, we don't have any proof that he fancies her. What if he doesn't? She'll be heartbroken. It's best not to do anything at all."

The doorbell rang before Lily could respond. When she got up to answer it, Mary followed her. It was Snape.

"Severus!" Lily cried, truly delighted to see her friend, but also slightly wary. Mary still was dead set against anyone who hung around with Avery and his set. Lily couldn't blame her (after all, she had given Sev a HUGE lecture about the people he hung out with) but she wasn't going to let that stop her from being friends with Severus.

"Why didn't you call me back?" he demanded, completely ignoring both her welcome and Mary.

"I only heard about it just now," Lily said, a little surprised by his hostile tone. "I was about to when you showed up."

Snape glanced at Mary. "Can I talk to you in private?" he asked.

Lily glanced at Mary, who nodded for her to go on. "Okay," she said.

"What's been up with you lately?" Severus asked as he drew her off to the side. "You haven't been talking to me at all."

"I was taking care of Mary," Lily said. "Your 'friends' attacked her, in case you didn't remember." She made air quotes as she spoke.

"I had nothing to do with that!" Severus said. "You know I didn't! I was at the game. I didn't know what they were doing!"

"I know you didn't," Lily said soothingly. "But you've got to understand that Mary's been going through a lot lately, and I've got to help her through it. She's one of my best friends, Sev. Surely you understand that."

"I thought I was your best friend," Severus muttered. Then, louder and clearer, he said, "Why is she here?"

"Her mum's in St. Mungo's and her dad's dead," Lily said.

Snape gasped. "I had no idea," he said. Under his breath, he whispered something that sounded like, "Why wouldn't they tell me?" Lily decided to let it go.

"I told you she was going through a tough time."

"Death Eaters?"

"Who else? I'm not blaming you; I don't think it has anything to do with you."

"Of course, that was hopelessly naive of me," Lily told James. "It had everything to do with them; they were the ones who attacked Mary's parents. But I didn't know that then, and I really only have my suspicions now."

"It's not like you could have done anything, anyway," James said comfortingly. Lily nodded and wiped her eyes - they had begun to water.

"But why is she _here_?" Snape asked. "Couldn't she have gone to McKinnon, or something?"

"Marlene and her family are spending time with her grandmother," Lily informed him.

"But why did you invite her _here_?" Snape asked again. "Summer's our time!"

"Severus, things are changing. Our routines aren't going to be the same forever. When our friends need us, our friends need us. We have to put them in front of us."

"What about me?" Snape demanded. "I'm your friend, aren't I?"

Lily laughed. "You're more than my friend," she said, laying her hand on Severus' arm. "You're my best friend in the entire world, and I wouldn't have that change for anything. But I do have to help Mary through this. Can you try to understand?"

Severus nodded, happy with the admission that he was more than just Lily's friend. She had only meant that he was her best friend, but maybe, he thought, maybe one day she would see him as he saw her.

Two days later, however, the trouble returned when some of Snape's friends decided they wanted to visit him. When Avery and Mulcibar found that Mary and Lily were both staying within a mile of Snape's house, they seemed to make it their mission to scare the girls a bit more. They started following them everywhere, acting as though it were a pleasant surprise when they ran into each other yet again. Mrs. Evans was convinced that since these charming boys were friends of Severus', they must be friends of Lily's as well, and therefore there was no harm in allowing them to all hang out together. So Lily and Mary were pushed into picnics and shopping trips with the Slytherins.

"I don't like this," Mary told Lily one day. "They're up to something."

"Of course they're up to something," Lily said. "Why else would they be pretending to be our friends?"

"Why don't you tell your mum who they really are?" Mary asked. "She keeps encouraging them!"

"I know," Lily sighed. "I've tried, but she won't ever let me finish. She's completely charmed by them. I think we'll be okay as long as we keep an eye out for any trouble. We're allowed to use magic if it's a life-threatening situation."

And a few days later, it turned into one. They were having a picnic when Avery and Mulcibar snuck off, leaving Snape to entertain the girls. He was doing an uneven job, deliberately talking to Lily about things that Mary couldn't enter into, when suddenly there was a loud roar, and Avery and Mulcibar came running back, chased by the same demon they had conjured last time.

"The only reason we're alive to tell the tale is because the Ministry showed up," Lily concluded. "Avery and Mulcibar managed to worm their way out of punishment again by saying that someone else conjured the demon. It wouldn't have worked, but they'd had the foresight to use another wand."

"And you still were friends with Snape after that?" James said incredulously.

"What else could I do?" Lily asked helplessly. "He claimed he had no knowledge of what they were doing, and I had to believe him. He was my best friend, James. My best friend! I know you think he wasn't a very good one, but he was, before we got to Hogwarts. Things changed then."

"And now everything's changed again," James said. "But there's one thing I don't get. Necromantia is supposed to be incredibly difficult. I know Avery has street smarts, but he's pretty dumb in class. And all those spells are supposed to be lost. So how did he manage to raise two demons?"

"I only have suspicions," Lily said. "But I'm guessing Voldemort gave the spell to him, and taught him how to use it."

"That makes sense. But how did Whifferdill get it? He's not a Death Eater."

"I bet he was imperiused," Lily said. "If you looked at him, really looked closely, you could tell. It was very subtle and well-done, though."

Rather than admit that he hadn't noticed anything, James changed the subject. "So did Mary learn how to defend herself after that?"

Lily nodded. "She almost became obsessed with it. She would work every spare moment we had, that McKinnon wasn't taking up."

"Why do you hate her so much?" James wanted to know. "You lot used to be best friends, but you and Marlene and Mary have barely spoken since 5th year!"

"I know." Lily sighed. "It's another story, though it is a bit shorter."

James pulled his blanket closer to him. "We've got time."

When Lily first entered her dorm, at the very beginning of her very first year, she found that she was sharing it with four other girls: Alice Montgomery, Suzy Rowood, Mary MacDonald, and Marlene McKinnon. They all became friends pretty quickly. Lily, Marlene, and Mary were exceptionally close. But though Lily didn't see it, Alice and Suzy soon saw that Marlene wasn't a good friend for Lily. To Lily's face, she was always very loyal, but behind her back, she sniggered and spread rumors about her. Mary was her second-in-command, her bestest friend ever. She honestly liked Lily, but always sided with Marlene. Alice and Suzy swore that they would never, ever treat Lily like that.

"I didn't find any of that out until the end of my fifth year, though," Lily said. "After I stopped being friends with Snape, Marlene just...she stayed away, and took Mary with her. Then, on one Saturday - I think it was the last one before summer started -"

"That's the day she asked me out," James interrupted.

Lily stared at him. "What?"

"She asked me out that day. I remember it clear as anything."

Marlene had come skipping down the stairs, her long hair swinging loose. She went straight up to where Frank and the Marauders and asked James if he would go out with her.

He looked up from his game of Exploding Snap, startled. His mind began racing, trying to find a way to politely say, "NO WAY! Are you insane? Isn't rather obvious that I'm head over heels in love with Lily?" Frank solved that problem for him by saying "No, he's not going to be going out with you!"

"Are you insane, thinking that he would even consider such a thing?" Sirius injected.

"Isn't it rather obvious that he's head over heels in love with Lily?" Remus added.

"Yeah…ummm…there's no way he's going to go out with you!" Peter said (rather lamely, Sirius thought, but then, it was Peter).

Embarrassed, offended, and furious, Marlene flew back up to her dorm.

"That must have been why she was so mad at me," Lily said.

"What did she do to you?" James asked.

"Well, I was just sitting on my bed, reading a book, when she barged in."

"Oh, get up already!" Marlene had yelled at Lily. "Just go down to the stupid common room and stop hiding!"

Lily looked up, shocked. "Marlene?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

"Wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong! You're what's wrong!"

"Me? What did I do?"

"You're ruining ALL OUR CHANCES!" Marlene screamed at her.

"What?"

"There's such a simple, obvious solution, too," Marlene said. She wasn't yelling any more, but she was still furious. She was certain that all her problems could be easily solved if Lily would just make a bit of an effort. "And you, the 'best witch in our year'-" Marlene turned the words into an insult. "You can't figure it out!" She laughed, a little hysterically.

"What in the name of Merlin are you talking about?" Lily demanded, bewildered. Marlene wasn't acting like herself. Lily had already lost one friend that month and now it looked as though she might lose another. And she knew that Mary would follow Marlene in this. She followed Marlene in everything.

"James."

"Potter?"

"How many Jameses do we know?" Marlene demanded. "And how many are you hogging?"

"Hogging?" If Marlene hadn't been so caught up in her fury, she would have flinched away from the look in Lily's eyes. The redhead's temper was a thing of legend, and Lily was mad now. "Let me get this straight. You're accusing me-me, who hates James Potter with ever molecule of my being-me of hogging James Potter? I would like nothing better than to have him dating someone, anyone else! Me hogging Potter? Ha!"

"But that's exactly what you're doing!" Marlene yelled. "Just date him already, so he'll lose interest in you and start looking at other girls!"

"So." Now Marlene noticed how livid Lily was. "A boy only has to date me to lose interest in me, huh?"

"What? No, no! You misunderstood me!" Marlene cried, backpedaling. "I…I didn't mean that! It's just-"

"Just what?" Lily asked, her eyes flashing dangerously. "Just that you want Potter for yourself?"

Blushing, Marlene cried, "So what if I do? Is that a crime now? To want to date the most popular boy in the school, that's against the rules now, is it?"

"No. No, that's not against the rules. But there are other rules, unwritten ones. Rules like 'don't lie to your friends about important things.' When those rules get broken, the cost's not detention. It varies every time, but it's always harsh. In this case, the cost is our friendship, and my trust." For a moment there was silence as Marlene, fuming, processed what Lily had just said. "Oh, come on," Lily finally said. "You've never really liked me. You were just pretending to be so that you could get close to Potter." She fully expected Marlene to deny this, but one look at Marlene's face told her she had hit home.

"You make it sound like I'm the one who's in the wrong here!" Marlene finally burst out. "Grow up, Lily! How many of your friends do you think are 'real friends'? Friendship is a social tool! Merlin, everyone knows that. It's time you stopped your little fantasy."

Lily just stood there, shocked and hurt. But a second later anger rose in her. "So now I'm supposed to thank you for pulling my out of my 'little fantasy'?" Her voice was cruelly cold.

"Maybe you should! Start living in the real world already!"

For another minute or two, they stood glaring at each other. Then Marlene's features contorted into a sneering smile.

"We don't have to mention this little tiff to anyone, do we, Lils?"

"Don't call me that!"

"Lily," Marlene hissed. "Do you really want the entire school to know what just happened here?"

"No. But I'd rather have that happen than spend another minute being friends with you. Get out!" Suddenly, Marlene was being propelled out of the room by an invisible force. The door to the dorm locked, and Lily collapsed back on her bed, sobbing.

"I'm so sorry," James said. "I never knew."

"We tried to keep it quiet," Lily said. "It all turned out okay, though. I've got Alice and-" Her voice broke. "I have Alice," she said.

For a moment, there was silence as James and Lily thought of all that had happened that day. Finally, "Lily," James started.

When he didn't continue, Lily asked, "What is it?"

"Never mind," James said, ducking his head to hide his blush.

Lily reached out and pulled his face back up. "Ja-mes," she said teasingly. "What is it?"

"Nothing," he said.

"Tell me," she commanded.

"It's just...youkissedme."

Lily smiled slightly. "I did."

"And you said you love me," James said, only a little slower.

"I did."

"Why?"

"I kissed you because I loved you, and I said I love you because it's true."

James gaped at her. "Really?"

Lily's smile had grown to a full-out grin. "Really."

"Who are you and what have you done to Lily Evans?"

Lily laughed, and it sounded even more musical to James than it did normally. "The only one who did anything to me was you."

"What did I do?" James said, automatically on the defensive.

"Mwadeyallinovithou," Lily mumbled.

"What?"

"Made me fall in love with you."

"You're pulling my wand," James accused her.

"I'm dead serious - and no, I don't mean Sirius!"

"It's a dare, then."

Lily sighed. "What am I going to have to do to make you believe me?" she demanded. "I. Am. In. Love. With. You. How hard is that to understand?"

"You mean it?" James asked.

"YES!" Lily yelled. "Merlin's beard, yes! How many more times am I going to have to say it before-" James cut her off with a kiss.

When they broke apart, James whispered, "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that."

A moment or two later, Lily pulled out of his arms. "We should get some sleep," she said, trying to sound casual and failing miserably. James could see her grinning sillily to herself as she climbed into her sleeping bag.

"Night, James," she said.

"Good night, Lily," he replied, and then, for the first time but by no means the last, he was finally able to add, "Love you," and hear a soft, "Love you, too," in response.


	17. Potter Manor

"Have a great weekend!" Harriett's teacher called. "I'll see you all on Monday!"

"Bye!" the class chorused as they rushed out of the classroom.

"Harriett!" a young woman with electric blue hair cried. "Can you come over today?"

"Sorry, Tan, I've got to head home," Harriett told her best friend, Tananna. "My aunt and uncle want me at home."

Tananna huffed. "They _always_ want you at home," she complained. "Are you their slave or something?"

"I'm sorry!" Harriett cried. "It's just...well, there's stuff going on, stuff I can't explain to you."

"Oh, you don't have to tell me anything," Tananna hastened to assure her. "You've been acting strange this year, that's all."

"I know," Harriett sighed. Then she glanced at her watch and swore. "I've got to get home. I'll see you on Monday!"

"Bye!" Tananna yelled after her friend. Then she sighed. She and Harriett had been best friends for almost three years now, ever since the first day back after winter vacation. They had both been starting school then and they had the same schedule, so it was natural for them to become friends. They had grown to be very close, but Tananna often had the feeling that Harriett was hiding something from her. Most of the time, Harriett was a very open and talkative girl. But on certain subjects, such as her family, she was nearly silent. Every once in a while, Harriett would admit that there was something going on, but she never hinted at what it might be. Lying in bed at night, Tananna imagined all sorts of scenarios, from abusive parents who were in truth still alive, to a mass-murderer whom Harriett's aunt and uncle were fighting to get revenge on. But she knew she would never ask Harriett about them. Coming from a rather...unusual family herself, Tananna knew how precious privacy was. She wasn't going to risk Harriett's friendship just because she was curious.

At least, that had been her outlook at the beginning of their school year. But as time went by, Harriett began to seem stranger and stranger. During the school day she acted like everything was normal, but it was just that: an act. Maybe their teachers couldn't tell, but Tananna could. Harriett was worried about something, or someone, and that was causing her to lose sleep. She would come to school each day with bags under her eyes and would often doze off in class, something she never would have done before. Though Tananna was getting very, very worried about Harriett, there was no time during the school day when they could talk privately, and Harriett was spending all her time outside of school barricaded in her house.

As she jogged home from school, Harriett recalled her behavior that day and winced. She had slept through math, gotten hit in the head with a ball in PE because she had been wondering what James was doing, and let it slip to Tananna that something was going on at home. She sighed. These days, either Mr. or Mrs. Potter was almost always away. Sometimes, they would both be working, and Harriett would be living at home alone. Marie and Phillip weren't particularly strict guardians; in fact, they were incredibly lenient. Raising James and having Sirius and the other Marauders spend summers with you did that. But they were very careful when it came to safety, especially Harriett's. They knew the boys could take care of themselves and were far safer at Hogwarts than they would be at home, but nothing could rid their minds of the conviction that Harriett was in danger at every moment. For one thing, Death Eaters were likely to target her, since she was a squib. Also, because she had no magic, she wasn't very well equipped to take care of herself. That was the only reason Sirius and James had been allowed to teach her how to shoot a muggle gun.

Some of the rules that the Potters had put in place were common. When Harriett was home alone, she was to keep the doors locked and to not respond to any communication unless it came from a trusted source, such as James, or the Minister. Others were less widespread.

"If anyone comes out the Floo network," Mr. Potter always told Harriett. "Point that gun at them and force them right back where they came from."

"If you come home from school and we've left a note saying we had to go," Mrs. Potter would say. "Look for the spells we've put on it to make sure only you will see it. It has to be those specific spell, you understand? All three of them. Don't let any strange owls spend the night. And for goodness sake check for curses before you open any mail, regardless of who it's from."

Harriett's talent for seeing spells came in handy there. Though it was far easier for her to see spells on people, if she concentrated she was able to see them on inanimate objects as well.

"I'm home!" she called as she entered Potter Manor. It was a habit she had gotten into when she first started walking home. She did it even when she knew nobody was home. This was one of those days.

"Great," a voice said from behind her. "James is just at the store. Apparently there wasn't enough candy in the house, or something." Whirling around, her gun at the ready, Harriett saw a young woman who looked to be only a year or two older than she was. Taking in the intruder's dark red hair and green eyes, Harriett blurted out,

"You're Lily Evans."

"And you're Harriett Potter," Lily said back. "I'm awfully sorry to just appear in your house like this, but things got a little hot at Hogwarts for us, so here we are!"

The front door banged open, and James walked in, his arms loaded with junk food. "Oh, hey Harry. I see you found Lily."

"Are you mad?" Harriett asked him, lowering her gun once she had searched James for disguising spells and found he had none on him. "Why on earth didn't you write and tell me you were coming?"

"We didn't know until yesterday," James said, dumping the candy on the counter and giving Harriett a hug. "And then we were pretty busy."

"What happened?" Harriett demanded.

"One of the subs raised a demon, one of my friends died stopping said demon, Death Eaters attacked Hogwarts, Snape beat James in duel, I dueled him as revenge for that and all the other stuff he's done to me over the years, I beat him, Remus turned into a werewolf and accidentally killed one of my best friends, whom he happened to have fancied for quite some time, the Ministry showed up and chased the Death Eaters away, then tried to get us to blame Dumbledore for the whole mess, we refused, they tried to arrest me and James for treason, we left," Lily said, all in one breath.

Harriett stared at her. "Umm...wow," she said. "That's a lot. Are you okay?"

It took a moment for them to answer. Finally, "We're alive," James said, and they left it at that.

The three of them stayed up late that night, filling Harriett in on all the details of what had happened and getting settled in. Potter Manor was _huge_, as Lily soon found out. While it wasn't quite the size of Hogwarts, it had four stories, a basement, and ten bedrooms. James' and Harriett's were on the second floor, so Lily chose one of the bedrooms there, too. As they were all saying goodnight, Harriett noticed that James gave Lily a small kiss on the cheek.

"When?" she demanded. They stared at her.

"What?" James asked.

"When did this happen?" Harriett cried. "Last I heard, Lily still hated your guts. Now she's letting you kiss her on the cheek?"

Grinning wickedly, James grabbed Lily and kissed her on the lips. "We're dating now!" he told Harriett triumphantly.

"YES!" Harriett jumped up and punched the air. "Sirius owes me fifteen pounds of Honeyduke's now," she crowed.

"You were betting on this?" Lily asked.

"Of course," Harriett said, surprised. "Everyone has been, for ages. At Hogwarts, too, if Sirius' list is anything to go by."

"I'm going to kill him," James mumbled.

The next month was full of contradictions. While, in theory, James and Lily were lying low, in reality they were as busy as ever, sending daily letters to the other students. Of course, they were also writing ten gillion letters a day to concerned parents and coordinating with the teachers, while attempting to strike a deal with the Ministry. At the same time, however, they seemed to have far too much free time in which to remember the horrors of the battle. James and Lily started casting silencing charms on their bedrooms at night so they wouldn't wake Harriett up with their screams.

Despite the nightmares, however, they were sleeping, which is more than they had done for the last few months.


	18. Tananna Wynters

"Harriet…Harry? Oi, Earth to Harriett?"

"Huh?"

Tananna rolled her eyes. "Did you hear a word I said in the last five minutes?"

"Sorry."

"Seriously, Harriett, what's going on? You haven't been yourself lately."

Harriett hesitated, and for one moment Tananna allowed herself to hope that maybe she would get an answer. Then Harriett's eyes focused on something behind her friend, and she stiffened. "I'm sorry, Tan, really, I am, but it's not my secret to tell."

"Whose is it, then?" Tananna demanded.

Harriett paused a moment, her mind racing to analyze the possible outcomes of this situation. "My cousin's," she said shortly. Then, "I'll see you tomorrow, okay? My ride's here."

Surprised, for Harriett always walked to and from school, Tananna whirled around to see a young man standing by a motorcycle. She watched in astonishment as Harriett walked up to him, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and made as if to get onto the motorcycle. Suddenly fed up with all the secrets and mysteries, Tananna ran after her. "Harriett!"

The boy whirled around, instantly on the defensive. Harriett laid a comforting hand on his arm before turning to her friend. "What is it, Tan?" she asked, a sharpness in her voice that Tananna had never heard before.

"I'm tired of not being told anything."

Harriett sighed. "I told you, they're not my secrets to tell!"

"Not everything is confidential!"

"These days, it is!"

"Harriett," the young man interrupted. "Who is this?"

"Tananna. I told you about her, remember?"

"Oh, so you tell people about me, but can't tell me about them?"

"Can you trust her?" the man asked, ignoring Tananna.

"Of course," Harriett replied instantly.

"Then tell her."

"What? James, I can't!"

"Why not?"

"James!" Harriett looked about five as she stomped her foot in anger. "You know why! It's illegal!"

"You've broken laws before."

"Not big ones!"

"Face the facts, Harry. You're housing two criminals. You could be arrested just for that."

"That's different," Harriett said, her resolve unweakened. "You're my cousin."

"This is your cousin?" Tananna cried in surprise. Harriett was full of stories of James and his friends, but Tananna had never met them. They kept to themselves, rarely straying beyond the borders of Potter Manor.

The young man nodded. "James Potter," he said, sticking out a hand.

"Tananna Wynters. Are you really a criminal?"

His face tightened. "Certain people think so. Can I make a deal with you?"

"What's the deal?"

"Come home with us and we'll tell you everything. I'm warning you, though; you may not like everything you hear."

"I don't care. I want to know."

"They all say that," he muttered. "In exchange, you have to swear to never tell another living being about this. It must remain absolutely secret, you understand?"

She nodded. "All right."

"Also, I want you to agree that if any of a certain group of people – and they must have certain identifying factors – if any of them come to you, that you will offer them asylum and any help they need."

"James," Harriett protested. "That's hardly fair."

"It's her choice," was all James said.

"There you are!" A red-haired young woman flew out of the huge mansion as the motorcycle pulled up. "I was getting worried."

"Who's this?" Tananna asked. Instantly, she found a stick pointed in her face.

"Relax," James told the young woman, pulling her arm down gently. "This is Tananna, one of Harriett's friends from school."

"Muggle?"

James nodded. "We're going to tell her everything, though."

"What?" the young woman looked appalled. "Why in the name of Merlin would you do that?"

"She's a friend of Harry's. She deserves to know what's going on. We'll make her swear not to tell anyone, and she's agreed to give us any help we need."

"Don't do this." She turned to Tananna, her green eyes pleading. "Please. I know it seems now that whatever you learn will be fine, but it's not worth it. Once you know about us, there's no going back."

"They gave me this talk on the way over," Tananna said. She wasn't sure she liked this young woman. She was a little too…too. Too red-headed, too appalled, too scared, too sincere.

"Did they tell you you could die?"

"Lily," James started. She whirled on him.

"You know it's true! Look how close we came. It's not just the…" Glancing at Tananna, she changed what she was going to say. "It's not just _them_, James, it's the…it's Elphick's people, too. He's lost control. The wrong person finds out we talked to her, she's dead."

"You do know that everything you say is just making me more anxious to learn what this big secret is, don't you?" Tananna asked.

Lily glared at her a moment. "Well, don't say I didn't warn you. You don't know what you're getting into." With that, she ran back into the house.

James heaved a sigh and ran his hand through his hair. His expression was so pained that Harriett had to move to comfort him. "She'll come around. It's a sensitive subject for her, with her family having limited knowledge, and all."

"Everything she said is true," James said, turning to Tananna. "You don't have to go through with this."

"I want to know," Tananna said.

Five hours later, Tananna knew everything. Her endless supply of questions had run dry, and James' throat was sore from talking. "You understand why I couldn't tell you?" Harriett pleaded.

"Oh, yes," Tananna said. Her head was still spinning. "What I don't understand is why you decided I should know all of this."

James shrugged. "We need allies," he said, his voice hoarse.

"Dependable allies," a voice said from the doorway. None of them had noticed Lily standing there. "Good, dependable allies we know we can trust. And we need them desperately. I don't think it warrants putting your life on the line, but it was your choice. You do understand what I was warning you about earlier, though, don't you? You can't just erase this from your memory. We could do it for you, I suppose, but it won't be the same."

"I know," Tananna said. "Thank you for warning me, and all, but I still think I made the right choice."

Lily shrugged. "I probably would have done the same thing. I'm muggle born, you know. I didn't know I was a witch until I was eight."

"Eight?" Harriett said in surprise. "Before your Hogwarts letter?"

"I grew up near Sev – Snape, remember? He saw me doing accidental magic one day and told me I was a witch. That's how we became friends."

"Who's Snape?" Tananna asked.

"Death Eater," Lily said shortly. Then, turning to James, she asked, "So what exactly did you make her promise?"

"If any of us ever need any a place to stay, she'll let us in."

"And how exactly is she supposed to tell us from Death Eaters?"

"I told her our patronuses. You can't duplicate those."

"All right," Lily said, the fight going out of her suddenly. She sank down on a sofa and smiled slowly at Tananna. "Welcome to the cause."


	19. Gotta Get Back to Hogwarts

"All right, everyone in bed. You heard what I said, get in bed! And be quiet. I could hear you talking all night last night."

"Yes, ma'am." The students scrambled obediently into bed. As soon as the woman was gone, however, the room exploded in whispers.

"That mean old witch!"

"What were James and Lily thinking, sending us here?"

"Be grateful we have a place to stay."

"I understand she's got to be sick of us, but she doesn't have to be so mean about it!"

"We'll be out of here soon, don't you worry."

"It's been almost a month, and we still haven't heard a word from James or Lily."

"When are we going to get back to Hogwarts?"

"It's not just her that I don't like. There's nothing to do here!"

"It's all muggle stuff."

"It's not all bad. The food's good."

"And you have to admit, it can't be easy for her."

"None of us were expecting it to take this long."

"Yeah, well, how many of us were really expecting to be attacked?"

"None of this was expected. We've gotten this far, haven't we? We'll be back at Hogwarts soon."

"We'd better be."

"They're getting restless."

"I know, but there's nothing we can do."

"Heard anything from James or Lily?"

"No. Everything's fine, though."

"They're still at Potter Manor?"

"Yes, I got a letter from Harriett."

"How's she holding up?"

"Okay, I guess. They kind of freaked her out, showing up out of the blue like that."

"We all freaked ourselves out."

"So they're safe, but they still can't write more often."

Remus shrugged. "They're just trying to protect us from the wrath of the Ministry, and all."

"They would," Sirius mumbled.

"Do they have any idea when we can go back to school?" Frank wanted to know.

"Do they have any idea when we can see them?" Alice asked softly. "I miss them."

_Prongs and his Lilykins –_  
_ Have you heard anything from the Minister yet? The kids are getting restless, and frankly, I can't blame them. We're all trapped in these little muggle homes with nothing to do. Even my brilliant mind is running out of games for them to play. We all miss you._  
_ -Pads_

_James and Harriett –_  
_ Things are getting bad out here. We won't be able to write again for a while. We're not certain when we can get home; Scrimgeour is sending us on an important mission. Of course, it's also top-secret, so we can't tell you anything about it. We probably won't see you for a while, though. Harriett, don't stay home alone for the entire time. If the Dumbledore allows it, go to Hogwarts when James does. All our love to both of you._  
_ -Mum and Dad_

_Mr. Potter and Miss Evans –_  
_ Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will reopen when the Ministry deems it fit and no sooner. When it does reopen, you may be certain that you will be relieved of the obligations you shouldered earlier this year, so you needn't worry about logistics. Your interest in being useful is very honorable, but if you could kindly refrain from continuing to clog my inbox with your letters, it would be much appreciated._  
_ - Ptolemy Elphick, Minister of Magic_

James threw down the letters and sighed. "Lily," he called. "The Minister wrote back."

"And?" Lily asked, coming into the room.

"The usual nonsense. They don't want us doing anything."

Lily sighed. "At least they reply to our letters. Still nothing from Dumbledore?"

"Not a word."

"Harriett, don't look now, but there's an old man across the street staring at you."

Unlike most people, Harriett resisted the temptation to peek. "What does he look like?"

"Old," Tananna whispered. "Really old. Kind of like Santa Claus. He's got a long white beard and everything."

Harriett leapt up from the bench they were sitting on, pulling Tananna with her. "Come on!" she cried gaily. "I'll race you to that corner!"

When they met there, both slightly breathless, Harriett whispered to her, "I recognize him."

"You do?" Instantly, Tananna was on the alert."Is he…you know…" Her voice took on a positively conspiratorial tone as she whispered, "A Death Eater?"

"I don't think so..." Harriett whispered. The girls kept moving as she thought it over. The man followed. A block or two later, Harriett placed him. "Of course!" she whispered. "That's Dumbledore!"

"Dumbledore?"

"Headmaster of Hogwarts."

"He's on our side, isn't he?"

"Of course! Only we can't be sure it's him. I've never seen him, you know, only seen pictures."

"So how do we figure out if it's him?"

"Excuse me, but do I have the honour of addressing Harriett Potter?"

The girls whirled around. Harriett's hand went to her hip, where her gun was concealed. "Yes," she said warily. "Who are you?"

"My name is Albus Dumbledore. I am Headmaster of Hogwarts."

Harriett and Tananna glanced at each other. "We'll need some proof of that," Harriett said.

Subtly, so the muggles couldn't see, the man pulled out his wand. The girls tensed as he whispered, "_Expecto Patronum_."

A phoenix sprang from his wand, silver and transparent. It took off, flying high above the unsuspecting muggles' heads.

"Why can't they see it?" Tananna asked, her eyes wide with awe.

"You have to know about magic to be able to see patronuses," Dumbledore explained. "Most things in the wizarding world work that way."

Harriett was still suspicious, but patronuses were pretty conclusive evidence. "Do you need to see James and Lily?"

Dumbledore inclined his head. "If they aren't too busy, yes."

"I should warn you," Harriett said, beginning to wind her way home. "They're not very happy with you right now."

"As they should be," Dumbledore said. "To all intents and purposes, I simply dropped this huge burden on them and left. I hope to make that up to them now, though."

"Tanna!" A young girl shot out from a side street and attached herself to Tananna. "Tanna, Tanna, Tanna, LOOK!" She held out her arm, on which was drawn a flower. "I did it mySELF!"

"Good for you," Tananna said, bending down and picking up the toddler. "Go on," she mouthed at Harriett.

Harriett nodded. "I'll keep you updated," she told her friend as she and Dumbledore moved on.

"Who is that?" Dumbledore asked.

"My friend Tananna. She's offered to help us. James told her everything."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "Well, he must do as he feels best."

"She's trustworthy," Harriett said defensively. "And she offered any help we needed."

Dumbledore just smiled. "I'm sure she'll do fine."

When they reached the property, Harriett took Dumbledore's hand and led him through the wards. It took them almost ten full minutes to reach the house.

"James? Lily?" Harriett called inside.

"In here," they chorused from the kitchen.

"This way," Harriett said to Dumbledore. "Hey, guys, you'll never guess who I ran into!"

James and Lily were sitting at the kitchen table, which was covered in papers. Her hair was tied up in a messy ponytail and his was sticking up in all directions, a sure sign that he was agitated. Both of them looked grateful for the excuse to stop working. "Who?" James asked.

"Dumbledore!" Harriett said proudly as the headmaster entered the room.

For a moment, there was a shocked silence, then Lily leapt out of her seat and gave Dumbledore a huge hug. "Where have you been?" she demanded.

"Working," he said. "Fighting, mainly, and also negotiating with the Ministry. You both have been pardoned, though it seems that you may be called upon to testify at my hearing. The Minister is not pleased with any of us."

Lily snorted. "Well, we're not exactly pleased with him either."

"When do we get to go back to Hogwarts?" James asked. "All the students are bored out of their minds."

"That is why I'm here," Dumbledore said. "The Minister has finally agreed that you may return. However, he has a few conditions."

James groaned. "Of course he did."

"The arrangements for the staff remain the same. They will come and go at the Ministry's pleasure. You two, however, are relieved of all responsibility."

"So who's going to run the school?"

"Select Ministry officials."

"I thought they didn't have any people to spare, and that's why they took the teachers!" Lily exclaimed.

"Not exactly," Dumbledore said. "They are overworked and understaffed, but what they really needed were fighters, so they pulled the teachers. The people they're sending to Hogwarts have desk jobs."

"Do they know anything about education?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't know."

"Sir?" Harriett asked tentatively.

"Yes?"

"James' parents won't be back for quite some time, and I'm not supposed to stay home alone for that long. I have a friend I can go to…."

"My parents wanted her to come to Hogwarts, if it's okay with you," James said.

"Well, I don't see why you couldn't come to Hogwarts," Dumbledore said. "It would be rather lonely for you, I'm afraid, but certainly ought to be safe with the Ministry people there."

"They wouldn't mind?" Harriett asked, her mind whirling.

Lily laughed. "Oh, they'll probably mind. They mind everything."

In a tone of utter finality, Dumbledore said, "I am still headmaster of Hogwarts. You may stay there as long as you like."

The room seemed smaller than it was, probably because of the number of couches, chairs, tables, and people crammed into it. Students of all ages were sprawled throughout it, reading, talking, or watching the muggle TV. The noise level was incredible, but the owners of the house, the parents of a muggle-born fourth year, seemed oblivious to the chaos. They were sitting in a little room just off the living room when the doorbell rang.

Instantly, all activity ceased. The students raced to erase all traces of their existence and hide upstairs. The muggle couple made their way slowly to the door, doing their best to calm their racing hearts.

They needn't have worried. When they opened the door, three teenagers were standing there. "Hey," the boy said. "Is Sirius here?"

The couple exchanged looks. "Sirius?" the man repeated. "I think you have the wrong house."

"No, I'm sure this is right," the boy said. "We need to talk to a boy named Sirius."

"You see, he recently set a nest full of _bumblebees_ on me," the redheaded girl said.

"Bumblebees?" The man and woman glanced at each other again. "You said bumblebees?"

"Yes, bumblebees."

"Come in. We'll see if we can find this Sirius for you."

The trio walked into the house, still a little wary. The couple had recognized the name Sirius and the code word, but one could never be too careful. "Sirius?" the woman called up the stairs. "There are some people here that want to talk to you about bumblebees."

"Bumblebees?" Sirius' head poked out of a door on the second floor.

"It's just us," Lily called up.

Instantly, a flood of students flew down the stairs towards them. "Lily!" "James!" "Oh my god!" "Do we get to go back to school now?" "Does the Ministry still want your heads?"

"Harriett!" Suddenly, she found herself enveloped in a bone crushing hug. Looking up, she saw Sirius' laughing face. "What are you doing here?"

"She's coming with us," James said, appearing at their sides. If his grin had been any wider, his face would have split open. "Mum and Dad are on a mission, so Dumbledore said that she could stay at Hogwarts."

"You saw Dumbledore?"

"We're going back to Hogwarts?"

"Hey, did you hear that? We're going back to school!"

The room erupted in cheers.

"Are they always this excitable?" Harriett asked Sirius. He just grinned at her.

"Oh, honey, this is nothing. Nothing at all."

"Do you have any ear buds I can borrow?"

"It's called a silencing charm. Watch." With a quick flourish of his arm, the noise abruptly stopped. "See? Easy as pie." Harriett made a face at him, and he would have made one back at her if James and Lily hadn't appeared.

"We've got to go to the other houses," Lily said. "But we'll probably be back sometime soon. School starts officially again in a week, on the ninth."

"Do you want to stay here?" James asked Harriett.

"She's staying," Sirius said, and that was the end of the matter.

_Whoo whoo!_ The familiar chugging of the Hogwarts Express had started. Inside, there was the usual mix of mirth and merriment as the students greeted each other after a month apart. It almost seemed as though it were a usual school year and the students were returning from Christmas break. Almost, but not quite.

In the prefects' compartment sat Group A, laying out a plan for the rest of the year. "I thought Dumbledore said that the Ministry would be taking over," Harriett said as she came in, her hands full of candy.

"And you expect us to let them barge in and take over our school?" Sirius asked. "No thank you!"

"You can't just disregard everything they say," Harriett pointed out. "They're powerful. And admit it; you lot could use the help."

"We know," Lily said. "But it doesn't mean we like it."

"For now, our plan is to act on our own, to see if the Ministry will let us," James explained. "If they don't, well, we'll just have to find some way to work with them."

"And if they don't want to work with you?"

"Then I guess we let them run the school," Alice said. As the others turned to her in amazement, she just shrugged. "It's not like we'll have any other option. If they're decent at running the school and don't want us to do anything, then what else can we do?"

"But what if they're not decent at running the school?" Remus asked. "What then?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "Then we keep fighting them," she said. "Duh. But we can't keep running against them forever. They're so much more powerful than we are. When all's said and done, who are we, really? Just a bunch of kids."

"Powerful kids," Sirius said. "Competent kids. Kids who ran this school perfectly well for three months!"

"Kids who let the Death Eaters get in," Alice shot back.

"Kids who kept all of the students out of that alive," Sirius said. He was on his feet now, as was Alice.

"Kids who would have died if the Ministry hadn't shown up!" Alice shouted. "Don't you see? It doesn't matter how well we think we did. In the end, the Ministry is always going to be bigger, and better, and people are going to believe them over us. We can't afford to keep antagonizing them forever!"

"She's right," Frank said quietly.

"Are you two mad?" Sirius demanded. "We can't just give into them! They're an incompetent bunch of fools!"

"But they're powerful fools!" Alice screamed at him.

"Will you two stop shouting?" Frank moved so he was between them. "Look, I'm not saying that we should do everything the Ministry says. A lot of them are fools, and a lot of them are incompetent, but they're also the only thing standing between us and You-Know-Who."

"Yeah, cause they're doing such a great job of stopping him," James muttered.

"Frank's right," Harriett said.

"Harry!" Sirius cried.

"My parents died fighting Voldemort. Right now – as we speak – James' parents are out there, risking their lives for us. The Minister may be an incompetent fool, but not everyone who works with him is."

"I didn't mean _them_," Sirius muttered, slightly ashamed.

"Honestly, though, what are the chances of them being good at running the school?" James asked. "You have to admit that their education policy could use a lot of work."

Alice flopped back into her seat. "Oh, we'll fight them hard, don't doubt it," she said. "I can already tell you what's going to happen. They're going to come in and ruin all our hard work. The student population, led by us, will rebel. The Ministry will be forced to back down slightly, but won't learn their lesson. At the end of the day, they'll just hate us that much more."

"Maybe it won't be so bad," Lily said. "Maybe they've learned. Maybe the people they send won't be horrible. They sent us Molly, remember."

"And Whifferdill and Malfoy," James pointed out, but Lily's optimism was contagious. And after all, it couldn't hurt to hope.

That night, after everyone else had settled down in their common rooms, Sirius wandered the halls. It wasn't his night to patrol, but it was so good to be back that he couldn't wait until the next morning to explore. As he walked, he wondered how he had ever managed to stay away from Hogwarts for so long. The thought that his graduation was approaching fast didn't escape him, but he pushed the thought away. Tonight was no night to be thinking of the future or the past. It was too beautiful for that.

As he walked, Sirius' thoughts drifted towards Harriett. They had gained an annoying tendency to do so in the last few months. Normally, when Sirius thought of a girl, he didn't go much farther than her body, or maybe which house she was in. Lily had always been an exception, of course – James would gladly have murdered his friend for thinking anything like that about her. Alice, too, was exempt, seeing as everyone knew she and Frank were meant for each other. Suzy just kind of slipped into that category. And his cousins, of course. Andromeda and her daughter were practically the only females that Sirius knew well and respected.

Harriett, though, was different. He had first met her the summer after his third year at Hogwarts, when his family gave up and finally allowed him to spend part of the summer with James. On the ride home from Hogwarts that year, James gave Sirius a stern talking to.

"Listen," he said, growing serious. "My cousin's going to be staying with us this summer. She's a year younger than us, and a squib. If you say or do _anything_ to upset her, I will beat you to shreds. Got that?"

"But I'm your best mate!" Sirius had protested, laughing.

"I don't care," James had said. "I will beat you up, I swear it. Leave her alone."

So Sirius had never really thought about Harriett as a girl. Sure, he knew that she was female, but it hadn't been until the last summer that it had really sunk in: Harriett is a girl, and an amazingly pretty one. On top of that, unlike most girls, when she looked at him she saw Sirius, a friend, a real person, with real flaws. The girls at Hogwarts all just saw Sirius Black, the invincible Marauder, the player. But Harriett had seen him when he arrived at Potter Manor the summer after fifth year, with only a trunk and the clothes on his back. He had been a mess, crying, covered in mud, and exhausted. The Potters had amazingly calm about it, of course, taking him in instantly. A week later, and it was as if that had been the plan all along.

The point was, Harriett knew Sirius, and somewhere in the course of the last year, he had fallen in love with her. He had never thought to fall in love – that was something for James, maybe even Remus. Love was something out of muggle fairy tales; some dream that girls would harp on about it. But suddenly, love had become Harriett.

As he meandered through the corridors of Hogwarts, he suddenly found he wasn't alone. A girl was standing in front of a window, staring out at the grounds. Her black curls floated loosely down her back. She didn't hear him come up to her, and jumped when he whispered, "Hey."

Relaxing as she saw who it was, Harriett smiled at him. "Hi," she whispered back, and returned to looking out the window.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Sirius murmured. "You think you've gotten used to it, and then you see it on a night like tonight."

"I never thought I'd see it," Harriett said. "It seems like a dream."

"I think everyone feels like that when they come here. I sure did."

"But you knew you were coming." She turned to face him. "I was sure I'd die without ever being here."

"Don't talk about dying," he said. It came out a little harsher than he had meant.

"Do you know the school as well as you're always bragging?"

He grinned. "I know this place better than I know my own backyard."

"You haven't been in your backyard for two years!"

"Exactly. Come on, I'll give you a tour."

"How big is the castle?"

"Big," he said. "But I'm not going to show you the castle. C'mon!"

"Sirius…Sirius, where are you taking me?" Harriett demanded.

"Right here," he said, skidding to a halt in front of a statue of a hunchbacked old witch. He drew his wand and pointed at her. "_Dissendium._"

The statue slid open, revealing a corridor leading downwards. "A secret passage?" Harriett gasped, her eyes shining.

"Yup. Ladies first," Sirius said, bowing her in.

Giggling, she entered.

"Good morning, everybody," Lily cried from the front of the Great Hall. "Slytherins, you're up first this morning." Obligingly, the students came up to check their schedules.

"Officials from the Ministry of Magic will be arriving at some point during the day," James said. "Treat them with the same respect you show us."

"More, if you can," Remus called out. The Hall rocked with laughter.

"I know we've had problems with the Ministry in the past," Lily said. "But try not to make them too mad." Glancing back at the Slytherins, she added, "Ravenclaws, come on up."

"And remember," James said. "As of the instant they arrive, we have no power. So all your complaints, questions, whatever, goes to them."

"We have no idea how they plan to run the school," Lily said. "But until they get that figured out, just go according to our schedule."

"Before the Ministry comes, we just want to thank you all," James said. "We were given an impossible task, and the only reason we've gotten this far was because of all of you."

"You've been absolutely amazing," Lily said. "Really, all of you, thank you so much for everything you've done."

"Gryffindors, go ahead and check your schedules. The rest of you enjoy your breakfast!" As he and Lily sat back down, James asked, "Where are Sirius and Harriett?"

Frank shrugged. "Sirius wasn't in the dorm this morning."

"Let me check the map," Remus said. "It's up in the dorm."

As he left, Alice asked, "What time is the Ministry coming?"

"Noon, I think," Lily said. "We're not quite sure."

"And we're just going to let them do what they want," James said, sighing.

"We have to keep looking like the good guys," Frank said. "The students will make their preferences known."

"We can hope they choose to come to us and completely bypass the Ministry, but we can't look like that's what we want," Alice said. "We can't look power hungry."

"I swear," Lily said, "this job is more acting than anything else."

"They're not on the map," Remus said, reappearing at the table.

"What?"

"Look," he said, laying it out on the table. "See if you can find them."

Ten minutes later, Alice spotted them. "Isn't that them?"

"They're on the third flood," Lily said. "What are they doing there?"

James and Remus traded looks. "I'm going to kill him," James said, getting up. "Come on."

When they got to the third floor, they saw Harriett and Sirius just starting to climb to the stairs. "Where have you two been?" James demanded. The miscreants turned, and the others saw their arms were full of candy.

"It's my fault," Harriett said instantly. "I asked him to show me the school."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "So he took you to Honeyduke's?"

"Oh, lay off them," Frank said. "Did you get any acid pops?"

"Here," Sirius said, tossing him one. "And Moony..." From the large pile of candy in his arms, Sirius drew a box of Honeyduke's finest chocolate.

"Bribery is illegal, you know," Lily pointed out, but she was laughing.

"You want some?" Sirius offered. "Here." He tossed her a box of Bertie Botts's Every Flavor Beans.

"Don't I get any?" James complained.

"I want some!" Alice cried.

Just then, a resounding knock brought the teens to their senses. Hastily, Sirius reopened the statue and dumped all his and Harriett's candy insde.

"Who's there?" Lily called.

"The Minister of Magic," a voice replied from outside. "With the staff designated to run Hogwarts."

Ten minutes and many questions later, the Minister and the two people with him were allowed in. "Very good security," the man said, looking around appreciatively.

"Gosh," the woman said. "I haven't been back here since I was a student. Oh, goodness, what happened there?"

"Death Eaters," James said. "We haven't...I mean, repairs aren't quite done yet."

"Laurence, this is James Potter, and that is Lily Evans," Elphick said. "Head Boy and Girl respectively. Children," - they glowered at the term - "This is Mark Laurence. He'll be in charge here." Laurence grimaced at them apologetically.

"How do you do," Lily said coolly.

"And who are the rest of you?" Laurence asked.

"Alice Montgomery."

"Frank Longbottom."

"Alice and Frank are our Healers while Madame Pomfrey is away," Lily explained.

"I'm Remus Lupin. I've been working with the students who have been teaching the classes."

"Sirius Black."

"What do you do?" Laurence asked.

Sirius glowered. "Entertainment."

"And this is my cousin Harriett," James said. "She's a squib, but Dumbledore said that she could stay here while my parents are on a mission."

"My own parents are dead," Harriett explained in answer to Laurence's unasked question. "You-Know-Who killed them."

The mention of the war sobered everyone for a moment, but Elphick soon cleared his throat. "Well, I'd best be off," he said, glancing at his watch. "I only came to get you properly introduced."

The instant he was gone, Laurence turned to the teens. "I'm awfully sorry about this," he said apologetically. "If it's all right, I'd like to keep things how they are. You lot seem to know what you're doing, and I've never run a school before."

"None of us have," Remus said. Having decided they weren't going to oppose the Ministry, he seemed determined to make Laurence's job as easy as possible.

"You really would let us keep going on as we have been?" Alice asked. "Doesn't the Minister want you to wrest all of our power from us, or something?"

"I'm sure he'd like me to," Laurence said. "But it doesn't seem right."

"Are you sure about this, Mark?" the woman asked. "Elphick is sure to want regular reports that confirm that we've taken complete charge."

"Look, I don't want to be another controlling idiot from the Ministry." Frustrated, Laurence ran his hand through his hair. "You, of all people, should understand!"

"And who are you?" Remus asked the woman.

"Sorry about that," Laurence said. "This is my colleague, Laura Fischer."

"Elphick hates me," she explained, "which is why he didn't introduce me."

"In case you can't tell," Laurence said, "the feeling is mutual."

"Join the club," James said. "Come on, let's introduce you two to the school."


	20. Nastily Exhausting Decisions

"Hey, could I talk to you guys for a moment?" James and Lily turned to see Laura Fischer standing there.

"Of course," Lily said.

"Have you thought at all about a schedule for testing?"

James groaned. "Oh, god, no. I knew there was something big we were forgetting."

"Mark and I can take care of it," Laura said. "There's a lot of back and forth with the Ministry, getting testers and all. The real question is for all of you in Group A. You've been under a lot of stress this year, and I wouldn't be surprised if you've missed a few key points. Seventh year is the most important one, in many ways. Do you want to take your NEWTs with the rest of your year?"

"Don't we have to?" Lily asked, surprised.

"Well, of course it's highly recommended," Laura said. "But you don't have to. I know the rest of the student body is prepared – you've done a fabulous job with that. I'm just afraid that you've sacrificed your own studies in the process."

"Maybe just a little," Lily said guiltily.

Laura laughed. "No one can blame you," she said, slipping an arm around Lily's shoulders. "You two have done far more than anyone expected. I don't suppose you'd ever consider coming to work for the Ministry after this year."

Lily wrinkled her nose. "I don't know…" she said.

"I was planning on becoming an auror," James said. "And I'd still like to fight You-Know-Who, but I don't think I could possibly work for the Ministry."

"They wouldn't let us in, most likely," Lily said. "They don't really like us."

"The Minister doesn't like you," Laura corrected. "Some of us at the Ministry have been rooting for you all along. Anyway, think about it. I'd love to have you two in my department. Any of you in Group A are welcome, actually."

That night, as Group A sat in the Head's Common Room, James and Lily told the others of the conversation. "Do you want to take the NEWTs?" James asked. "It's going to be a pain."

"Well, we won't have to study years one through six," Remus pointed out. "We've been teaching them all year."

"We've been teaching everything all year," Frank said. "We know bits and pieces, but that can't substitute actual learning. Do we know the 7th year standards?"

Lily shrugged. "As well as any of the 7th year students do."

"Are they taking the tests?" Alice wanted to know. "After all, their learning has been interrupted, too."

James sighed. "We'll talk it over with them."

_James and Lily –_

_ The end of this school year is finally approaching; something, I am sure, you are looking forward to as much as I am. The Ministry has agreed to allow all Hogwarts staff, myself included, return to school for the testing and your graduation. I have heard that the majority of the students in your year have decided to take the tests. I have complete confidence that your teaching methods will produce satisfactory results. If I may make one suggestion, you ought to consider taking the study halls you have been holding one step further, perhaps creating OWL and NEWT study classes to add to the curriculum. I have been considering doing something like that for years, but never had the courage to disrupt the schedules so greatly – one problem that you have proved yourselves adept at handling._

_ James, I spoke to your parents recently. They wished me to give you and Harriett their love. I believe they are leaving on another mission very soon, and have no time to write. Harriett is of course allowed to stay at Hogwarts for the rest of the year._

_ Please convey my regards to Mr. Laurence and Ms. Fischer and thank them once more for their cooperation and help. The Minister, I am afraid, remains as stubborn as ever. We are all kept very busy here, and it is unlikely I will be able to write you again. _

_ Until June,_

_ Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore_

_Order of Merlin, First Class_

_ Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

_ Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards_

_ Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot_

"Morning, everyone! Fifth and seventh years, please stay in the Entrance Hall once breakfast is over for your first tests. You're just testing today, so you don't need to come check your schedules. For the rest of you, though…" James turned and flicked his wand, causing the schedules to appear behind him. "Gryffindors are up first today, I believe."

"Professors?" Lily turned to the Ministry workers, the only people seated at the head table. "Anything to add?"

They shook their heads. "I'll need to talk to the students who are testing today," Laura said. "But that can wait."

"All right, that's everything, then. Good luck on your testing, everyone!"

Half an hour later, all chatter in the hall stopped as the front door knocked. Group A and the adults hurried out to answer it.

"Who's there?" Sirius, who got there first, asked.

"Professor Dumbledore, the other teachers of Hogwarts, and the testers from the Ministry of Magic."

When the usual interrogation was over and the newcomers walked into the Great Hall, the place erupted in cheers. "It's DUMBLEDORE!"

"Oh my goodness, look at the testers!"

"Professor McGonagall!"

"They're back!"

A few minutes later, Dumbledore raised an arm and the chaos subsided. "Thank you all for that warm welcome," he said. "But I believe you have to get to class now."

"Fifth and seventh years to the Entrance Hall, remember!" Laura cried.

"Ready?" James whispered to Lily.

"Oh, Merlin, no," she whispered back. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"You'll be fine," he said. "You're _Lily Evans_. You'll get straight O's, don't you worry."

"I hate tests," she said, shaking her head.

"James? Lily? Come on!" Remus shouted from the doorway.

"Coming!" James called back. "Come on, Lily, you're going to do great."

She took a deep breath. "Okay. I can do this."

"Welcome, everyone, to your first day of NEWTs and OWLs. Usually, the testing is spread over a two week period, but this year we're condensing it into one and a half weeks. You will be taking two written exams every morning and one practical exam in the afternoon. Now, I personally have applied *the most stringent Anti-Cheating Charms to your papers. Auto-Answer Quills are banned from the examination hall, as are Remembralls, Detachable Cribbing Cuffs, and Self-Correcting Ink.* Believe me; we will know if you're using them. You will know your results sometime in July. The best of luck to all of you!"

"Alice!" Lily pounced on her friend. "What did you get for number 523? I wasn't certain, but I thought it was C."

"Which one was that?" Alice asked, trying to regain her balance.

"The one on the Treaty of the Donkey. Was it in 1932 BC?"

Alice frowned. "I think so."

"Hey, why'd you lot leave so fast?" James asked as the boys came up around them.

"Oh, believe me, if you'd been friends with Lily as long as I have, you'd leave the hall fast after a test, too," Alice said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm not _that_ bad," Lily pouted.

"Oh, yes you are," Alice said. "Who remembers what question 523 was?"

"That was the one on the Treaty of the Donkey, right?" Remus said. "Did you get C?"

"See, you're not the only one with crazy friends," Frank said.

That afternoon, everyone's nerves were on edge as they waited to be called for their first practical exam, Defense Against the Dark Arts. No matter how much they told themselves that a test should be easy compared to dueling Death Eater, Sirius had to admit he'd rather take the Death Eaters.

"Why do they make us wait so bloody long?" he complained.

"You've got it lucky," James said gloomily. "You'll be called any moment. I'm going to have to wait for hours!"

"Black, Sirius!" was called just then, proving him correct.

"Good luck, mate," James said, clapping Sirius on the back a little harder than necessary as he passed by.

"Nervous?" Lily asked, sliding into the seat next to him. James shrugged.

"It's not so bad now, but I'm going to be the last one of us called…"

"You'll be fine," she assured him.

"Evans, Lily!"

"Hey, Lily?" James whispered as she stood up. When he didn't continue, she looked at him quizzically. "Love you," he murmured, flushing.

She smiled and bent down to kiss him on the cheek. "I love you too," she whispered. "You'll do great."

"Miss Evans?"

"Coming," she called.

That night, after dinner, Dumbledore called Group A to his office.

"It's so strange to be back up here," James said as they ascended the staircase. "No one ever comes by this place anymore."

"Well, I'm happy to say that should be changing," Dumbledore said. James jumped; he hadn't realized how close the headmaster was. "I'm happy to say that I'll be returning to Hogwarts next year," Dumbledore continued. "Everyone is in complete agreement that this year was an unhappy experiment. Things go back to normal next year."

"Thank Merin," Lily said. "I was worried about next year's crew."

"All of you will, of course, be receiving awards for Special Services to the School," Dumbledore said. "You have more than earned it."

"You mean we'll be in the trophy room?" Sirius said. "Wicked. Some little first year will have to polish _my_ trophy!"

Dumbledore chucked. "On a more serious note," – Sirius opened his mouth, but closed it when Remus stomped on his foot – "I was also wondering if any of you had considered a career fighting Voldemort."

"Of course we have," James said.

"Frank and I are applying to the auror program," Alice said. The others stared at her.

"When did you decide that?" Lily asked.

"This morning," Frank said. "I don't relish working for the Ministry, but hopefully I'll be able to stay away from Elphick."

"They will welcome both of you with open arms," Dumbledore said. "But I'm guessing not all of you are willing to be associated with the Ministry."

"I wouldn't work for them for the world," Sirius said. "They're just a joke, these days."

Chuckling, Dumbledore said, "Well, I wouldn't go quite that far, though I fear you're right. The fact of the matter is, Voldemort is far more powerful than the Ministry. I am finally going to take Professor McGonagall's advice and do something about it."

"What?" the others all asked, anxious not to miss a word of what he said.

"I'm starting an organization called the Order of the Phoenix," Dumbledore said. "I will head it, and only people whom I would trust with my life will be able to join. It is, of course, entirely illegal, so it is crucial that it stay secret. We are not looking to cause a three-way war, but to assist the Ministry. I'd like the seven of you to join."

Group A looked at each other. "I'm in," James said, a grin spreading across his face.

"Me, too," Lily said.

"Is that even a question?" Sirius wanted to know. "Of course!"

"Sure," Remus said. "It's the perfect solution."

"Pete?" James asked.

"I suppose so," Peter said rather nervously.

"Ah, don't be worried," Sirius said, flinging an arm around Peter's shoulders. "It'll be fun, you'll see."

"Will it matter if we become aurors?" Frank inquired.

"No, no, of course not," Dumbledore said. "I'd like as many aurors as possible to join. So you all will do it?"

"Yes," Alice replied for all of them.

"Wonderful," Dumbledore said. "Now remember, this must be kept absolutely secret. I am working on a secure method of communication, but until the spell is ready, I'll owl you the times for the meetings. The letter should, of course, be destroyed immediately. They will contain the code word 'raspberry'. The first meeting will be a week after Hogwarts gets out, here at Hogwarts. I'll see you then."


	21. The Order of the Phoenix

_The Order of the Phoenix_

"Meeting dismissed." The usual babble of post-meeting chatter started up as the members of the Order of the Phoenix got up from their seats and meandered towards the door.

"Are you two staying for dinner?" James asked Alice and Frank.

"Nah, we've got to get back to the Ministry," Frank said. "Thanks, though."

"More training?" Lily asked. "How do they fill all those hours?"

"Oh, they fill them," Alice said. "They have us running, and drilling spells, and taking notes, and doing mock battles."

"At midnight?"

"They're trying to speed up the training so we can help fight," Frank said, shaking his head.

Lily couldn't contain a chortle. "They don't suspect?"

"Not a thing," Alice said, grinning.

"I don't know when we'll be back," Frank said. "Things keep running late, so we may just stay in the city."

"All right," James said. "We'll see you guys tomorrow, then."

"Meeting over?" Harriett asked as she came in, yawning.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" James asked, frowning.

"You're not my mother," Harriett said, then winced. Parents were a sensitive subject, as James had recently found out that his weren't coming home.

"She's fine," Sirius said, looking at her with sympathy. "It can't be fun, having the Order descend on your house and still be excluded from the meetings."

James stiffened. Dumbledore had offered Harriett a position in the Order, but James had forbidden her from joining. As she was still underage and he was her guardian with his parents gone, she had to obey.

"Can I talk to you?" she asked Lily.

"Yes, of course."

Her eyes flickering to James and Sirius, Harriett added, "Alone?"

Lily nodded and the girls went up to Harriett's bedroom. "Well?" Lily asked.

"I…I don't really know how to say it," Harriett said.

"Is it about Sirius?" Lily asked.

"How did you know?"

Lily laughed. "It's rather obvious that you two are in love."

"Does James know?"

"No, I don't think so," Lily said, considering. "Would it matter if he did?"

"Oh, goodness, yes," Harriett said. "He doesn't want me dating anyone, but especially not Sirius. Not with his reputation."

Lily sighed. "He does blow through girls, doesn't he? Do you want me to talk to James?"

"There's nothing to say," Harriett said. "I don't even know if Sirius wants to go out with me."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Of course he does," she said. "I've seen how he looks at you. Look, I'll get Remus to talk to him, okay? And if the only thing standing in your way is James, well, I'll take care of that."

Harriett smiled. "Thank you," she said.

"It's my pleasure," Lily said, rubbing her hands together in delight. "I still need to get Sirius back for all those betting pools he ran about me and James." Down the hall, a clock chimed midnight. "We should get to bed. Night."

"Good night. And thank you," Harriett said as Lily left.

"Hey, Sirius. Sirius? Oi, Padfoot!" Remus chucked his book across the room. Only when it hit Sirius' head did he look up.

"Whaddaya want?" he demanded.

"To talk to you?"

"Does it have to be now? I'm tired."

"We don't have much time. Lily only promised me ten minutes."

Sirius groaned and propped himself up on one elbow. He was sprawled on his bed, half asleep. "Lily?"

"Yeah. We want some answers out of you. Straight answers."

"About what?"

"Harriett."

Sirius stiffened. "What do you mean?"

Remus pulled a vial from his robes. "Drink this first."

"Remus…" Sirius got up and began to back towards the door, but Remus got there first.

"Don't make me use this," he said, drawing his wand.

"Moony, please…"

"Drink it."

"Fine…" Sirius gulped it down.

"Now," Remus said. "Why don't you sit down?" Though his tone wasn't demanding, his wand and face told a different story. Sighing, Sirius did as he was told. "Okay. Now, what do you think of Harriett?"

Sirius tried to cover his mouth, but the words spilled out. "I think I might love her."

"Do you know she has a crush on you?"

"I've guessed, but it's not like we can do anything about it."

"Why not?"

"James'll kill me. And much as I love Harriett, I'm not willing to lose James for her." From the bed, Sirius glared at Remus, who made a mental note to be careful for the next few weeks.

"And if I told you that he was okay with it-"

"He's not."

Remus ignored the interruption. "Provided, of course, that it didn't get in the way of your friendship and you didn't treat her like you treat the rest of your girlfriends."

"I would never!" Sirius cried, almost in spite of himself. "I swear it, I would never. Harriett's special. I've never felt this way about a girl before – about anyone before. I really think I might actually love her."

"Then who am I to stop you?" Both of the men whirled to see James in the doorway, Lily hovering anxiously behind him. "But I swear, Padfoot, if you hurt her, you'll wish you'd never been born."

The period that followed was, in many ways, their golden age. It was a dark time, to be sure, but they were together, and they were happy. If Remus ever felt left out among the three couples, well, he had Peter and the memory of Suzy to keep him company.

Time passed, and eventually James proposed to Lily (and fulfilled a bet he had made in first year with Sirius) and Frank proposed to Alice. The weddings were scheduled a month apart in the summer of 1979, and they were young enough to be sure that nothing, not even the war, would ruin their perfect day. But of course, that fantasy couldn't last long.

"James, Lily, Alice, Frank, Remus, Sirius, Peter, if you could stay behind a moment, there's something I'd like to talk to you about," Dumbledore requested as the rest of the Order moved towards the door.

"Of course," James answered for all of them.

When they were alone, Dumbledore locked the door and put a muffling charm on it. "This is all very top-secret, you understand – it's incredibly fortunate that our people managed to get the information that they have. I don't want anyone else to hear what I'm about to tell you."

"We won't tell a soul," James promised.

"Good," Dumbledore said. "There have been rumors of dark forces coalescing at Malfoy Manor."

"What kinds of dark forces?" Remus wanted to know.

"We're not sure. I'd like you seven to go scope it out. Just a basic reconnaissance mission. It shouldn't take more than a day."

"Anything in particular you want to know?" Lily asked.

"Just the basics," Dumbledore said. "Their numbers, who seems to be in charge, exactly who and what is there – nothing too difficult."

"All right." The young adults got to their feet. "I'll just let Harriett know," Sirius said and left the room quickly before anyone could protest. James, frowning, made as if to follow him, but Lily caught his arm.

"Let him go."

"Good luck," Dumbledore told them. "And remember, not a word of this to anyone."

"Three guards on my side," Lily whispered into her wand.

"Twelve total, then," Remus, who was at the front of the house, said.

Suddenly, a muffled scream came from over the wand. "It's a trap!" Alice yelled. "Get out! It's a –"

The silence was even more alarming than her screams had been. Lily turned to go, only to find a masked Death Eater blocking her way.

"Going somewhere, Miss Evans?" a silky voice inquired.

"Bugger off, Malfoy," Lily said, her wand pointing straight at him. Detachedly, she noticed with pride that her hand didn't shake.

With a sweep of his wand, Lucius removed his mask. Raising an eyebrow, he said, "I do believe that you're the one trespassing here. No," he added, raising his unarmed hand as she opened her mouth. "Don't deny it. But I'll be a generous host. Come in," he said, bowing her towards the door.

"And why would I do that?" Lily demanded, her mind whirling as she weighed her options. They weren't good. Malfoy was a powerful wizard, and if Dumbledore's sources were true, there were many dark creatures nearby.

Lucius knew what position she was in. "I'm afraid you have no choice," he said, smirking slightly as he twirled his wand. "You see, there's a rather important person inside who would like to see you." As Lily still hesitated, he twitched his wand. She barely dodged the curse. "Come now," he said. "In the house. Now."

Sighing, she walked into the house, always careful to keep him in her sight. "Who wants to see me?" she asked.

"You'll see," Lucius said cryptically as he led Lily through the house. Finally, he drew to a stop before two large mahogany doors. "Lily Evans, my lord," he said, bowing slightly as he led her in.

"You?" Lily hissed as she was brought into the room. "I should have known."

"Sit down, Miss Evans," Voldemort said coldly from his seat. "Join your friends."

Horrified, Lily turned to see Alice, Frank, and James sitting in silver plush armchairs in front of a fire. They all seemed frozen, their posture unnaturally good, their eyes staring blankly ahead. "What did you do to them?" she demanded.

"Sit," Voldemort ordered, and abruptly Lily found herself flying into one of the chairs. The instant she touched it, she, too, was frozen.

"You four have proved to be a nuisance," Voldemort said. "My Death Eaters have proved incompetent when trying to destroy you."

"My lord," a man said, coming in.

"What?" Voldemort demanded, a cold fury settling over his face.

Scared, the man bowed apologetically. "I apologize, my lord, but the Black boy managed to get away, as did the werewolf and Pettigrew."

"Never mind that," Voldemort said. "I do not need them. These four are the ones that matter." Still bowing, the man beat a hasty retreat. "Now," Voldemort said, returning to his captives. "As I was saying, you have proved annoyingly hard to kill. I myself have had the opportunity to kill you. I did not take it. Now, I will remedy that mistake." A snap of his fingers, and they could move again. Instantly, the Death Eaters' wands were drawn.

Voldemort laughed. "You won't be needing those," he told his followers.

"Don't be too sure," James said, his own wand drawn.

"Foolish, arrogant boy," Voldemort said. "There is nothing you can do." Turning, he ordered one of his Death Eaters, "Bring me the Evans girl."

There was a slight air of hesitation about the Death Eater as he grabbed Lily's arm and brought her before the Dark Lord. "Yes, that's it," Voldemort said. "Take off your mask, Severus. I want to see your face as I kill her. It won't hurt you, will it? No, of course not, because she's only a filthy mudblood, isn't she? Say it, Severus. She's just a filthy little mudblood."

Slowly, Snape removed his mask. His face was devoid of all emotion. Only his eyes gave the slightest hint of the immense pain he was in. "Say it," Lily said. "After all, that's what I am, isn't it? A muggleborn. A mudblood. Just don't lie to me again."

"Oh, so he lied to you, did he?" Voldemort said, cackling in delight.

"I don't believe that's any of your business," Lily said, her eyes never wavering from Severus'.

In the distance, a grandfather clock struck midnight. "Ah," Voldemort said. "A new day. A pity that you won't live to see it."

At that, Lily gave an almost imperceptible nod. It was enough, though. Alice and Frank dove for the fireplace, throwing Floo powder in only an instant before they hit the flames. James ran for Lily, who had thrown up the strongest protection charm possible. Then they, too, sprinted for the fireplace, stunning Death Eaters right and left. "Kill them!" Voldemort cried, rising for the first time from his chair. His own wand was out, shooting killing curse after killing curse at the couple.

Two adrenaline-filled minutes later, Lily and James were standing on the border of Potter Manor. After Flooing to the Leaky Cauldron, they had apparated there. They ducked through the protective spells and ran straight into Sirius.

"Thank god," he gasped, enclosing both of them in a huge hug.

"Alice and Frank?" Lily asked.

"Safe," Sirius said. "A bit bruised, but nothing too bad. What happened?"

"They knew we were coming," Lily said. "Not just that someone from the Order would be there – they knew it would be us."

Sirius nodded his face grim. "Dumbledore's inside. C'mon."

"We were betrayed," Lily said, still gasping for breath. "They knew we were coming."

"We could have just tripped some alarm," Remus pointed out. "They're sure to have a *serious* defense system."

"No," Alice said. "They knew it was going to be us."

"We shouldn't have left," Sirius said, scowling. "We just abandoned you. We should have stayed."

"And what, been tortured?" James asked.

"You were _tortured_?" Sirius, Remus, and Peter cried in unison.

"No, no," James hurried to say. "But if we had been, or if we'd been killed, we wouldn't have wanted you there with us. You-Know-Who wanted us, not you. He would have tortured you, killed you even, just to make us hurt."

"You saw You-Know-Who?" Remus gasped. "What was he like?"

"You weren't there that day in the park, were you?" Frank remembered.

"But you were at the mall, weren't you?" Lily asked, frowning.

"I was," Remus said. "But the battle at the park was on one of my days."

"It's just the four of us that have faced him twice," Alice said. "That's why he wanted to kill us tonight."

"He's going to really hate you lot now," Sirius said.

"But what was he like?" Remus asked again.

The four exchanged looks. "Terrifying," Lily finally said. "Absolutely terrifying. All three times."

"I think this time was the worst," Alice said softly. "The other times were in the middle of battles. We were full of adrenaline. And it was war. You expect to see horrifying things in a war. But this…it was so cold-blooded, so civilized."

"I never want to see Malfoy Manor again, that's for sure," Frank said. The others nodded.

"And the next time we see You-Know-Who will be far too soon," James said.

"Someone betrayed us tonight," Peter said. The others turned to him, surprised.

"What?"

"Someone betrayed us," he repeated. "Isn't it obvious? Who knew we were going to be at Malfoy Manor? Dumbledore and the seven of us. Dumbledore can't be the traitor, even if he wasn't, well, Dumbledore. He didn't know our exact plans. So it had to be one of us."

"What exactly are you saying?" James demanded. "I'd trust everyone here with my life, ten times over."

"I'm saying that someone in this room is working for the Dark Lord!" Peter yelled. Everyone flinched. Peter was always the quietest of the group, the most mild-mannered. Calming down, he said, "We can't trust anyone."

"I don't believe it," James said. "I won't believe it. No one here betrayed us."

"Mate…" Sirius said hesitantly. "I think Peter might be right."

"Well, who is it, then?" James demanded. "Is it you? Remus? Lily? No. It's not true!" With that, he stormed out of the room.

Late one night, there was a soft knock on the door to Lily's bedroom. The young bride stumbled out of bed, hoping against hope that it was her husband, returning from his mission. Instead, she saw Harriett standing there. "Harry?" Lily mumbled. "Is everything okay?"

"No," Harriett said frankly. "I know it's late, but may I come in?"

Still half asleep, Lily moved out of the way. With a flick of her wand, the lights turned on. "Thanks," Harriett said. "Sorry about this, but if I don't tell someone, I'll explode."

"What's going on?" Lily asked.

Harriett sighed. "Well, you know how paranoid everyone's gotten since the news of the traitor came out." Lily nodded. Tensions were running high throughout the whole Order, but their group of friends had undoubtedly been the hardest hit. Everyone knew that it had to be one of them. "Well, Sirius has got it into his head that it must be Remus."

"Remus?" Lily repeated, incredulous. "Remus?"

Harriett nodded. "I know it sounds absurd, but it's no less crazy than you being the traitor, or James, or Peter. Sirius is absolutely convinced that he's right."

"Merlin's beard," Lily whispered. "What are we coming to?"

"It's war," Harriett said grimly. "People are dying out there, and we can't always prevent it. Gideon and Fabian hit Sirius hard. We all thought they were invincible, and then they were…"

"Gone," Lily finished, forcing back tears. "I know."

"So this evening, Remus came in to talk to him, and Sirius just erupted. They had a huge row, wands and everything. I was actually scared that one of them was going to kill the other."

"Oh, god," Lily whispered. "Are they still going at it?"

"No," Harriett said. "Remus stormed out about half an hour ago. Sirius is ridiculously upset; he kept on ranting at me, and crying, and…it was bad. He just fell asleep. I didn't mean to dump all this on you, but I can't keep it to myself. What are we going to do?"

Lily sighed. "We're going to defeat Voldemort," she said. "And prove for once and for all who's innocent here and who's guilty."

The next morning, when Lily came down for breakfast, neither Sirius nor Remus was there. James was, however, battle worn and looking as though he hadn't slept or washed in a week. He was talking with Dumbledore.

"You're sure?" he asked. "Absolutely positive?"

"I'm afraid so," Dumbledore said, turning as Lily entered the room. "Ah, Mrs. Potter. I'll let James explain to you what I just told him. I'm very sorry, but I must run. It's the first day of term, and it wouldn't do for me to be missing." With a quick wave, he disappeared into the Floo network.

"What was that about?" Lily asked. She hadn't been able to fall asleep after Harriett had left, and was therefore a little grumpier than usual.

James sighed. "Come here," he told her, opening his arms. She went willingly into them.

"How was it?" she asked, reaching up to touch his stubbly check.

"Usual, for these days. The Death Eaters knew our every move practically as soon as we knew. But we snuck in a few tricks, and managed to take out a couple of them."

"Any losses?"

James shook his head. "Pete'll be in bed for the next week or so, but Alice and Frank came out practically scratch-less."

"And you?"

"I'm fine."

"James…"

"Okay, okay, I got hit by one curse. I'm all patched up, though."

"Good. Now, what was it that Dumbledore wanted?"

"He said that he's received intelligence that You-Know-Who is coming after us."

"Us?" Lily repeated. "Like, the Order?"

"No," James said, almost apologetically. "Us, as in you and me. And our little guy," he added, resting a hand on his wife's stomach.

"Why?" Lily whispered. "Why us? Why now?"

"I don't know," James said. There was a moment of silence as Lily tried to take it in.

"He's sure?"

"Positive. He says it's the most reliable information he's ever gotten."

"What do we do?"

"Dumbledore wants us to go into hiding. He recommended the *Filius* Charm."

"Oh, goodness, James."

"I know," he said softly.

"Will you be okay?"

"Me?" James had to laugh. "If that's what it takes to keep you and Junior safe, then I'll do it gladly."

"No sneaking out. None at all." Lily shook her finger in his face.

"None. I'll be the model of decorum."

"Oh, James…" Lily buried her head in his shoulder. "What do we tell the others?"

"The truth," he said. "I was thinking Sirius for our Secret-Keeper."

"Are you sure that's safe?" Lily asked. Seeing his expression, she quickly added, "Not that I think he's the traitor, it's just…well, it's Sirius. He's never been the most reliable person on the planet, and recently we've all become rather unhinged."

"Lily," James said, drawing back to look at her properly. "If I can't trust Sirius – if I can't trust my best mate – who can I trust? We can't go through life paranoid."

She sighed. "All right, then. Sirius it is."

"What about me?" Sirius asked, coming into the room.

Lily sighed and moved away from James. "You tell him," she said. "I'll let Harriett and the others know."

The door closed behind Sirius, and James drew his wife into his arms. There were bags under both of their eyes, the result of their three-month old son. "You okay?" he asked as she buried her face in his chest.

"Yes," she said. "No. I don't know. She was my next door neighbor, James."

"Who?"

"Maya Gregory."

"The girl who just died?"

Lily nodded. "She was just seven when I left for Hogwarts. I never knew her well, but…I just keep waiting for Petunia to be among the names of the dead, or one of my muggle friends. I feel so useless!" she burst out. Everyone had known that James would hate being cooped up, but Lily had been very good about the whole thing. Now, James had no words of consolation.

"We have to stay," he finally said. "We have to keep safe. For Harry."

"But what if we die?" Lily asked. "Where will he go? He's so little! He won't remember us."

"We're not going to die," James said automatically. Lily laughed humorlessly.

"It's only a matter of time. The second most powerful wizard in the world is after us, and we can only do so much."

Desperate to rescue his wife from this depression, James said the first thing that came to mind. "We could give something to the others, something that would let him know who we are."

Lily stared at him. "That's brilliant," she said. "Completely brilliant. What sort of thing are you thinking?"

James shrugged. "I dunno. Letters, maybe? Full of our memories."

"Why don't we just give him the memories? There's that Pensive, just sitting at Potter Manor. Maybe one of the others could hide it and a bunch of memories somewhere safe. And when all this is over, if Harry survives and we don't, Sirius or someone could tell him where to find it."

"All our memories?" James said, doubtful. "That's a lot."

"Well, he ought to know what happened our seventh year – you know the Ministry is acting as though it never happened. Maybe we could do just a little bit on our childhoods and then just go from our seventh year on."

"Okay…" James said, slowly warming up to the idea. "But what if whoever we give them to doesn't make it?"

"Maybe we could give it to Harriett," Lily said, just thinking out loud. "She's the least likely of the lot of us to die. And there's a spell – it's immensely complicated, but I think I could do it, even from here – it would deliver a letter to Harry. It could contain instructions on how to find the memories."

In the next room, a baby wailed. Lily sprang up and ran to her son. When James followed, he found her cooing over Harry and had to blink to keep the tears that sprang to his eyes from overflowing. In that moment, he swore that he would do anything to keep his family safe so that those memories wouldn't be necessary. But just in case he failed, they would be a nice backup.


	22. After

_After_

Potter Manor was quiet as Harriett ate her breakfast. There was an Order meeting that evening, but it was far too early to expect anyone. Harriett smiled to herself as she fingered the wedding band on her hand. Just before James and Lily had gone into hiding, Sirius and Harriett had had a very small, very private wedding. It was only the four of them – not even Remus or Peter had been there.

A small pop disturbed her silence. "Sirius?" she called. "Is that you?"

When she got no answer, Harriett grabbed the gun that was never far from her side and moved towards the door. "Sirius?" she called again.

"Wrong brother." Harriett whirled to see Regulus Black standing behind her, his wand pointed straight at her chest. Her hand trembling, she raised her gun, only to have him say, "I wouldn't, if I were you."

"What do you want from me?" Harriett demanded.

"You have information that we need. Come with me."

"And what makes you think I'd tell you anything?"

A flicker of fear crossed Regulus' face. "The Dark Lord is powerful. You will bend to his will eventually. Everyone does."

"Not everyone." Regulus spun at the sound of his brother's voice. "Get away from her."

"Sirius." Regulus' voice was calm, but his eyes were wide and his hands were trembling. "Sirius, I don't want to have to fight you..."

"You don't?" Sirius asked. "Pity. Personally, I was looking forwards to it."

Now a tremor entered Regulus' voice. "Please, Sirius. Don't fight me."

"I'm supposed to let you torture my wife?" Sirius demanded. "I don't think so."

"Y-your wife?" Shaking, Regulus looked back and forth between Harriett and Sirius. "You're married?"

"Yes," Harriett answered, seeing how close Sirius was to exploding with rage.

"No," Regulus whispered. "No, now I can't...Sirius." His brother ignored him. "Sirius, listen to me. Run. Run far away. The Dark Lord has plans for you. Get away from here."

Sirius laughed, the harsh, grating sound that he would always use when speaking of that day. "You haven't heard? Your Dark Lord is dead. Gone. Destroyed."

"No," Regulus said, his voice strangely calm. "No. He's not gone. He'll be back. You must be gone when he returns. Go!

"You're delusional," Sirius said, but took advantage of his brother's distraction to dart past him and grab Harriett's hand. They disapperated on the spot.

They reappeared among trees, in the woods not far from Potter Manor. "He's gone?" was the first thing Harriett asked. "You-Know-Who, he's dead?"

"As a doornail," Sirius said. He had his back to her, his head bent.

"Are you okay?" Harriett asked, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Harry killed him," Sirius said.

"What?"

"Harriett!" Alice suddenly was there, running towards them, her wand out. "Get away from him!"

"From who?" Harriett asked, confused. She looked around, but the only person she saw was Sirius.

"Him," Alice spat, glaring at Sirius.

"What did he do?" Harriett demanded.

Alice laughed humorlessly. "Oh, nothing. Just betrayed James and Lily to You-Know-Who. Just led him straight to his door last night."

"What? You-Know-Who found James and Lily?"

"He killed them," Alice said. "Your husband" - she spat the word with disgust - "told him where they lived, and he killed them. Would have killed Harry, too, if it weren't for some miraculous freak of nature."

"What happened?"

"The spell rebounded. Harry is alive, and You-Know-Who is dead."

"But that doesn't make sense," Harriett said.

"Of course it doesn't make sense," Alice said. "No one has survived the killing curse before." 

"Not that," Harriett said. "The part about Sirius." Both women turned to look at him.

"I good as killed them," he said. "I should have guessed it was Peter."

"Peter?" Alice repeated. "What does Peter have to do with anything?"

"He was James' and Lily's Secret-Keeper," Harriett explained. "We thought it would be safer. Nobody but the five of us knew, not even Dumbledore."

"Then you weren't..." Alice said, looking at Sirius. "I mean you didn't..."

"Betray them? I'd rather die," Sirius said honestly.

"But Peter, of all people…Harriett, are you sure?"

"Positive. Sirius was never their Secret Keeper."

"Merlin's bread…" Alice looked as though she were about to faint. "I have to tell the others. Remus and Frank are out for your blood."

"Send them to me if you have any trouble," Harriett said, but the instant Alice was gone, she sank down to the ground and buried her head in her hands. Sirius slid down next to her and pulled her into his arms.

"They're really dead?" she finally asked, wiping her eyes as she looked up. Sirius nodded gravely, then turned away, scrunching his face up in an effort not to cry.

"And Peter did it?"

"I'm going to kill him," Sirius said, abruptly leaping to his feet. "I'm going to go and find him and kill him right now."

"Sirius! Sirius, you can't!"

"Why not?" There was a wild light in his eyes. "He's the reason they're dead, Harriett. He was their friend…and he betrayed them. HE WAS THEIR FRIEND!"

"Everyone thinks it was you! They'll be looking for you! He'll be looking for you, trying to make out that we're lying."

"I hope he finds me. Cause when he does, I'll be ready. When he does, I'm going to kill him!"

"Sirius, please!"

"Harriett." Slowly, he took his wife's face in his hands. "He killed them. James and Lily are dead because of Peter."

"I know, but Sirius…don't let him kill you, too. Be careful, okay?"

Gently, he bent down and kissed her. "I will be. I'll see you tonight."

"I love you," she whispered, pulling him close.

"And I love you."

The sun was shining brightly over the small town near Potter Manor. At the local school, children laughed and played carelessly in the midday light. Inside, teachers gratefully took a break from the first-day chaos. Many of them consolidated in the teachers' lounge, chatting and exchanging stories of their new students. But in classroom B-4, the teacher sat at her desk, reading a newspaper as a student wrote lines at his desk.

The boy looked to be about eight or ten years old, and the teacher seemed no more than fifteen years older. Her eyes, however, looked worn – the sort of old look you'd expect to find in World War II veterans, not school teachers.

"Miss White?" The boy rose, his paper in hand. "I'm done. May I go now?"

"Yes, of course," she said as she got to her feet to take his paper. "But just one more thing." The boy sighed inwardly. He had heard that Miss White was the hardest teacher in the school, and now it seemed true. No other teacher would ask so much of a student on their very first day. "Two, actually," she said, and his heart sank further. "Have you ever been to London?"

"Yes, Miss White."

"Have you ever been to a shop called International Magic?"

His face lit up. "Yes, Miss White. It's amazing!"

She smiled, and suddenly seemed much more human. "Take this," she said, pulling a gift certificate from her desk. "Just not in class, you understand?"

Rather hesitantly, he took the certificate. It was for twenty pounds at that very shop. His eyes widened. "Thanks!" he said, a grin splitting his face in two.

"My pleasure," she said solemnly, but her eyes were dancing. "Now, would you go get Miss Wynters for me? She's in room C-16."

"I know, I had her last year," he said as he raced out of her room. At the doorway, he looked back. "Thanks again, Miss White!"

A minute later, Tananna entered the room. Her hair was back to its natural blond, but she had streaked it with a vibrant red. "What did you do to that boy? I had nothing but trouble from him all last year, and now he's talking like you're a saint!"

Harriett laughed. "Just gave him a little pranking help, that's all. You're right about him – he's destined for Hogwarts."

"I told you," Tananna said, smiling. "Did you just call me here so I can gloat?"

Instantly, Harriett turned serious. "No," she said, pulling her newspaper from behind her desk. "Look." It was a copy of that day's Daily Prophet. Harriett laid her finger on a small blurb at the bottom of the front page.

**REMUS LUPIN NAMED DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS TEACHER**

Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, announced yesterday that the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher will be filled this year by Remus Lupin. Mr. Lupin, a Hogwarts graduate himself, was unavailable for comment, as was Gilderoy Lockhart, who taught the class last year. For the last few decades, no professor has been able to keep the post for more than a year. Perhaps Mr. Lupin will be the one to break this mysterious jinx.

"Remus Lupin?" Tananna said, looking up. "He was a friend of your cousin's, wasn't he?"

Harriett nodded. "I haven't seen him since James and Lily…since the war ended. We're the only to left, or we were, but we never found each other."

"What do you mean, you were?" Silently, Harriett pointed to the newspaper again, this time to the most prominent article on the front page.

**MASS MURDERER ESCAPES AZKABAN**

Sirius Black, pictured right, escaped from Azkaban prison yesterday. Mr. Black, aged thirty-three, was imprisoned for murdering thirteen people and aiding and abetting He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in slaughtering other innocents. "We are shocked – shocked – that Black has escaped," Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge said. "Every conceivable force we have is working to recapture him. In the meantime, I request that our citizens remain alert and calm."

Mr. Black is the first person known to escape from Azkaban. The impermeable prison is guarded by dementors, one of the foulest species to walk this earth. His means of escape and current whereabouts are unknown. If you see Mr. Black, contact the Ministry instantly. The Ministry for Magic has alerted the muggle police forces. Notify your muggle neighbors. A "hotline" has been set up so they can report any sightings.

For more details on Sirius Black's life, imprisonment, and escape, see pages ten through twenty-five.

Next to the article was a picture of Sirius Black, one that would soon become famous. It was him in his prison uniform, shaking his head like a madman. Tananna grimaced at the sight of his face, then turned slowly to Harriett. "Oh, Harriett," she said sympathetically. "You knew him too, didn't you? And one of them people he killed?"

Harriett gave a bitter little laugh. "Yes," she said. "I knew them both. And I have never been more proud to have known Sirius than when I heard he had killed Peter."

"What?"

"I'm afraid I haven't been quite honest with you," Harriett admitted. "You know what happened to James and Lily, how they were betrayed by Sirius?"

"Yes."

"Well, it wasn't him. It was Peter. We thought that would be safer, especially if everyone thought it was Sirius."

"But why didn't you come forward and tell everyone?"

"I didn't think I needed to, for a while. We had a friend whom we had just told the truth to. She was going to spread the word, but was caught by Death Eaters. They tortured her and her husband to insanity. When I heard about that, it was too late. Officially, I was dead."

"Dead?"

"It was safer that way. If they had known I was Sirius' wife, they would have arrested me too. I still tried, of course, but I couldn't get into the Ministry." ***HELP NEED BETTER EXCUSE – BIT OF A PLOT HOLE ISSUE HERE***

"So everyone thinks you're dead," Tananna said, shaking her head. "Hence the new name, I suppose?"

"Hence the new life," Harriett said softly as the bell rang and children poured into the classroom.

Not long later Harriett stood in front of a small cottage on the outskirts of Hogsmede. Just hours before, the deed had been done over to Harriett White. It was a nice place, but after a decade of living in the muggle world, Harriett found it a little hard to adjust to being around magic all the time. She quickly found that the transition between being a muggle school teacher and a "witch" was quite discombobulating. Every day, she would have to Floo to the old fireplace at Potter Manor then walk a mile into town to teach. It was a slightly irritating commute, but Harriett was not willing to give up her beloved job.

She wasn't sure what she had hoped to accomplish by moving to Hogsmede. Part of her was hoping to see Remus - it had always seemed strange to her that they had never reconnected. Perhaps he had been fooled by her disappearance and honestly believed her to be dead. Maybe he hoped that was the case.

Deep down, though, Harriett knew she was looking for Sirius. In the twelve years since she had last seen him, her feelings had undergone no change. Her love was simply now tempered by a worry unlike any she had ever known. Even during the darkest times of the war, the entire world, wizarding and muggle, had never had all their focus on one of them. And when he was lost and hunted and scared, where better place to go than Hogwarts?

Regardless of whether or not he came, things were happening at Hogwarts that year. Harriett intended to be there for them.

For the first two months, Harriett's life was routine. She saw no one she knew until one day at the end of October.

"Remus!" she called. He turned, but didn't seem to recognize her. "Harriett?" she said uncertainly, pointing at herself.

His eyes widened. "Harriett? But..."

"Not here," she said. "I'm headed home - would you like to join me?"

He hesitated, and in that moment Harriett was acutely aware of how much had changed between them. The years were starting to show on them - on Remus especially. He looked terribly drawn and worn, though less beat up than Harriett would have expected after a full moon. But more than appearances had changed. The old Harriett would never have sounded so formal, and the old Remus would never have hung back. Eventually, however, he consented. "All right, then."

"Great," she said, doing her best to bridge the awkwardness between them. "You're teaching again, I hear," she said as they started walking.

He nodded, clearly uncomfortable. "There aren't many jobs open to people like me."

"Dumbledore's always been special," Harriett said. "How do you like it? Easier than last time?"

"Much," he said. "The Slytherins give me a little grief, but the others make up for it."

"Harry's there, isn't he?" Harriett asked.

Remus stiffened, but answered, "Yes, he's a third year."

"What's he like?"

He hesitated, seeking the right word. "Scarred," he said finally. "He's a brilliant kid and I think he's happy at Hogwarts, but he's very scarred. No one can blame him for that."

"Of course not," Harriett agreed. "But I suppose Sirius' escape couldn't have helped." Something - she wasn't sure what - was prompting Harriett to bring up the most painful subjects, to see if she couldn't break down that wall surrounding Remus.

"He doesn't know," Remus said after a moment. His tone was infuriatingly calm. "Well, he knows that Sirius has escaped and that he's looking for him, but nothing else."

"Not even that he's his godfather?"

"Nothing."

"Merlin's beard...Poor kid." Then what Remus had said caught up to her. "Wait a moment. Sirius is looking for Harry?"

"It's kind of classified..."

"Remus, you can trust me," Harriett said, opening the door to her cottage. "I'm good at keeping secrets, remember?"

He sighed in defeat. "Very few people outside of the Ministry know, but the dementors say he was talking in his sleep just before he escaped. Apparently, he kept on mumbling, 'He's at Hogwarts.' He's looking for Harry, it's the only explanation. The last time I saw Dumbledore this worried was my seventh year, which makes me worried. The dementors aren't helping matters, either." He hesitated, then asked, "Did you ever see any of this madness in him? Before, I mean."

"Only once," Harriett said slowly. "The day after James and Lily died."

"You saw him?"

Harriett nodded. "Didn't Alice tell you?"

"Alice?"

"She walked in while we were talking. Didn't she go see you afterwards?"

"Harriett," Remus said. "Alice was tortured to insanity that day. I never saw her."

"Then she never told you?"

"Told me what?"

"Sirius is innocent."

Remus laughed. "And James and Lily are just around the corner, are they?"

"Remus..."

"I've had those days too, Harriett, and they're nice, but they're dangerous. We can't just live in a fantasy world. James and Lily are dead because Sirius betrayed them. There's nothing we can do to change that. They're all gone."

"Then you really don't know," Harriett said, marveling. Remus looked at her as though she had gone mad.

"Harriett, listen-"

"No, Remus, you listen. I'm going to talk for a moment, and you're not going to interrupt me. You've had it wrong all this time. Sirius was never their Secret-Keeper. Peter was their Secret-Keeper. Peter was the Death Eater. Peter betrayed them."

"Harriett," Remus said, reaching for her arm. "Perhaps you ought to lie down..."

"No!" she cried, wrenching free of his grip. "It's the truth, I swear it!"

"Peter died trying to stop Sirius! He was the bravest of us all, and Sirius murdered him! But I expect you can excuse that, too?"

"Peter was a coward!" Harriett shouted. "A bloody coward who was so afraid of You-Know-Who he killed his own friends!"

"You're mad," Remus said flatly. "As mad as your lunatic Death Eater husband."

"Don't you dare call Sirius a Death Eater!"

"Don't you dare call Peter one! Sirius killed James and Lily and Peter - that's all there is to it!" Remus took a deep breath, then burst out, "Of all the days for you to be talking like that! Don't you have any respect?" With that, he was gone.

Harriett drifted over to a window and watched him storm away. A tear trickled down her cheek, but she was unable to indulge in a good cry as the doorbell chose that moment to ring. Wiping her tears away, Harriett went to answer it. A little boy stood there with his mother, dressed as a mini Harry Potter, scar and all.

"Trick or Treat!" he said, proudly holding out his bag.

The next day, Harriett stumbled out of the fireplace after an exhausting day of work. The instant she had set foot in the classroom, everything had gone wrong. Now, she was looking forward to a nice warm bath and some chocolate.

As she took off her coat, however, her eye was caught by a large black shape cannoning across her yard. Her heart pounding, she opened the door. "P-Padfoot?" she called uncertainly. The animal paused at the sound of her voice. _It's not him, it can't be him, oh god it looks like him, but it can't be him,_ she thought as her heart leapt to her throat. The dog climbed up to her porch and hesitantly inched over to her. His wet nose touched her leg tremblingly. "Sirius," she whispered as she fell to the ground and wrapped her arms around him. "Oh, Sirius."

He wiggled out of her grasp and slipped inside her house. She leapt to her feet and followed him, making sure to close the door and pull the blinds. He headed straight to her bedroom, still a dog. It was only when they were absolutely certain that no one could see in that he changed into his human form.

In an instant, Harriett was in his arms. "Merlin's beard, Sirius," she muttered, pulling back slightly to look at his face. "You look horrible."

"You've changed too," he said, but it wasn't the voice she remembered. Up until the end, Sirius' voice had been laughing, full of the crazy joy that characterized him. This voice was harsh and worn, the voice of a man who had spent twelve torturous years in Azkaban. "Merlin's beard, but I've missed you, Harriett. There was no one to keep me sane."

"It's okay," she said soothingly. "It's all okay now. You're free and we're together. We'll go away somewhere, maybe somewhere tropic, and everything will be alright again."

"No," he said. "No, I can't leave. Not when I worked so hard to get here." Seeing Harriett's baffled look, he elaborated, "He's at Hogwarts. I have to find him."

"What? Sirius, there will be time to find Harry when you're safe. You can't stay here!"

"Harry?" Sirius looked at her as though she were the crazy one. "It's Peter I need to find."

"You killed Peter," Harriett said, a worried look settling in her eyes. It wouldn't leave for quite some time. "Don't you remember? That's how they captured you."

"I never cast a spell that day," he said, gripping her shoulders. "I swear it."

"Are you sure?"

"I've forgotten a lot of things," he said. "But I'll never forget a single detail of that day."

"Then who cast that spell?"

"Peter."

"He committed suicide?"

"Think, Harriett. What happened? Not the conclusion everyone jumped to, the facts. The hard, cold facts. That's all you can trust."

Harriett marveled at him, this cold man who was so different from the carefree boy she had fallen in love with. "A spell was cast. There was an explosion. When it settled, all that was left of him was…was a finger. You think he just cut off the finger and disapperated?"

"He's an animagus too, remember. He's been living as a rat, this whole bleeding time."

"Sirius, isn't that a bit paranoid? Didn't you just say you have to rely on facts?"

"It is a fact! Believe me, Harriett, I know how mad it sounds. But I've been thinking it over for twelve years with no one but the dementors for company and I know it's true."

"What's this about Hogwarts?" Harriett asked, sensing that arguing was useless.

"He's there. Right now. So close…I was there not so long ago?"

"Where?" Harriett asked in alarm.

"Hogwarts. Right outside the bloody Gryffindor Tower. It looks the same, Harry, exactly the same as it did for us. Same portraits, same statues, everything." As he talked, his eyes lit up with that familiar light, and he was almost Harriett's Sirius again. "It was like walking through a dream. But then I got to the Fat Lady. She never liked me – always complained about the hours I kept. James had her wrapped around his little finger, though. She adored him. But me, the instant she saw me she started to scream bloody murder. Wouldn't let me in."

"Well, as far as she knows, you are a mass murderer," Harriett said, daring to smile a little.

"Oh, that," Sirius dismissed it with a wave of his hand. "Anyway, I got out, but it wasn't easy. Luckily those secret passageways are still secret."

"Oh, Sirius…"

"I was just wandering around Hogsmede, talking with this cat. His owner is in Gryffindor, so he said he'd keep an eye out for any rats. Said there was one he thought it might be. Then the dementors arrived, so of course I hightailed it out of there. That's when I saw you." He smiled at her – a real true Sirius smile, the sort that had charmed all of Hogwarts – and said, "I wasn't looking for anything more to beg some scraps, but instead I got you." He reached out and held her tight.

"I'm scared," he whispered into her hair. "Azkaban changed me, Harry, and I don't think it was for the better. I have to find Pete, I have to. If I don't…then it will all have been for nothing. But I'm scared."

"What makes you think he's in the castle?"

"Over the summer, there was a picture of him in the _Prophet_. Some story about Molly and Arthur and their ten zillion kids going to Egypt or someplace. I don't know. But there was a picture of them, and there he was, cool as you please, sitting on one of the boy's shoulders."

"You're sure it was him?"

"Positive. I'd know that rat anywhere."

"It's crazy…absolutely barmy. But…I could go up to the school. Remus is teaching DADA there now. Maybe he knows something."

"No. We're not getting him involved."

"He didn't know," Harriett said. "About you, I mean. Alice never got to him. He thought you were guilty all this time. I tried to tell him when I saw him yesterday, but he didn't believe me."

"I don't blame him," Sirius said. "I hardly believe it, some of the time. I'm going to try to get into the school again. It shouldn't be too hard; I know how to stay hidden. I'll see if I can't figure out the password. I'm going to find Peter and kill that traitorous rat!"

And just like that, Harriet had lost him again. "Well, not tonight," she said firmly. "These things take time and planning."

For a moment, she was afraid he'd go despite her. He hesitated as if considering it, but eventually just reached out and drew her near him again. And for the first time in twelve years, Harriett had her husband beside her as she slept.

Harriett was sitting at her kitchen table, eating breakfast when _The Daily Prophet_ arrived. As she took it from the owl, her heart nearly stopped. Sirius' face once again covered the entire front page. Her own face white, Harriett tore open the paper.

**SIRIUS BLACK ESCAPES AGAIN**

Last night, mass murderer Sirius Black was apprehended at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by Severus Snape, the potions master. Black had been hiding in the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmede, which is connected to the school grounds by an underground passageway. Prof. Snape found Mr. Black there with Remus Lupin, an old school friend of Mr. Black's, and three third year students: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasley. "They were clearly under the influence of the Confundus Charm," Prof. Snape said of the students. "Black had bewitched them."

For one happy hour, Prof. Snape was able to look forward to an Order of Merlin, possibly First Class, for aiding in the capture. During that hour, the three traumatized students lay in the hospital wing, unconscious, and Mr. Black sat locked in an isolated room at Hogwarts. When Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge arrived there with dementors, however, Mr. Black was gone. His door was open, perhaps the work of an _Alohamora _spell, though Mr. Black had no wand. How he escaped, especially with the intensive Ministry security, is unknown. For more, see page 5.

Slowly, Harriett lowered the paper. Two weeks ago, she had woken to an empty bed. Downstairs, a note had awaited her.

_Harry – _it said in Sirius' familiar scrawl. _Gone to the school – cat has him. Don't know when I'll be back – may be some time. Don't worry._ It was signed with a paw print.

"Harriett?" a voice called from outside. "Harriett, are you there?"

"Remus?" Anxiously, Harriett threw open the door. "What's going on? The _Prophet_ says that Sirius was captured at the school last night."

"He was," Remus said grimly as he entered. "This house is safe?"

"Yes, of course."

"Spelled safe?"

"Well, the usual anti-burglar spells came with it-"

"_Protego Horribilis_," he said, waving his wand. "No one can overhear this, you understand?"

While he detailed the events of the previous night, Harriett sat there, stunned. "You're saying that Harry and Hermione used a time turner to save Sirius?" she asked when he was done.

"Yes."

"Don't they know how dangerous that is?"

"Dumbledore told them to do it." He shrugged. "We stop trusting Dumbledore, where do we end up?"

"Dead."

"Exactly."

"But he got away safely?"

Remus nodded. "Those kids are brave. Ron and Hermione were ready to die for Harry. It's kind of scary, seeing that kind of loyalty in thirteen year olds."

Harriett laughed. "Like you lot weren't just as loyal."

"We had it easy, compared to them," Remus said, getting to his feet. "I should get back. Snape announced to the entire school this morning that I'm a werewolf."

"Want me to shoot him?" Harriett offered. "I've still got that gun."

He laughed. "It's not that bad. I'm just leaving, that's all."

"Leaving? Remus, you can't!"

"I can't stay, not now that they know."

She sighed. "I suppose not. Well, if you ever find yourself down, James and Sirius put all that money into Gringotts for me. You're more than welcome to any of it."

"Thank you," he said earnestly as he pulled her into a hug.

"Keep in touch," she said.

"Don't worry," he said. "I will."

As Harriett watched him walk away, she began to think for the first time since the end of the first war that maybe everything would be okay again. Voldemort was dead, Sirius and Remus were friends again. The possibilities were endless.

A small owl landed on the window sill. "Aren't you an adorable little thing," Harriett murmured as she removed the letter. It was addressed simply to _Harriett_, and inside was a single sheet of paper and another envelope, addressed to _Harry Potter_.

_Harry –_

_ I'm so sorry I ran out on you like that. You've had enough people leaving. Well, I won't be doing it again. I'm leaving the country, heading south. As soon as your school gets out, do you want to join me? I'd come to you, but things aren't great for me in England right now._

_ Knowing Remus, he probably already came by and explained everything to you. Don't listen to the _Prophet_ – they have no idea what they're talking about. Long story short, I ended up in the Shrieking Shack with Harry, his two friends Ron and Hermione, Remus, and Peter. Oh, and Snape was there, too, but the kids stunned him. They're real Gryffindors. Harry convinced us not to kill Peter – I swear, that kid may look like James, but he's Lily's son. Too big of a heart, both of them. Anyway, it was a full moon, and when Moony transformed, Peter changed and got away. Dementors came after me and locked me up. I'm not entirely sure how, as they were both unconscious last I saw them, but Harry and Hermione came running up to my cell not ten minutes before the Minister was due to arrive on a bloody hippogriff, of all things._

_ So now I'm on the run. Can't say where, obviously, but you know the place. Think of the one place we managed to forget about the war. I could use some of that joy now. Come if you can. There's so much more to tell you._

_ Loads and loads of love,_

_ Padfoot_

_P.S. Can you send this owl with this letter? I'm going to try to keep in touch with Harry._


	23. The Second Battle of Hogwarts

The (Second) Battle of Hogwarts

"Remus, what a wonderful surprise," Harriett said as she opened the door. "What brings you here?"

"War," he said. "What else? May I come in?"

"Of course."

"I should warn you," he said as they walked, "I'm a wanted criminal."

She laughed. "Oh, I'm used to harbouring criminals. How are you holding up under this new regime?"

"I'm still alive," he said, his face closing off. "Did you hear?" he asked with forced cheerfulness, holding out his hand. On his finger was a simple gold band.

"You're married?" Harriett gasped. "When? Who?"

"You remember Sirius' cousin Andromeda."

"She didn't leave her muggle born for you after all that fuss, did she?"

"No, of course not. But she and Ted had a daughter."

"Nymphadora, right? Nymphadora Tonks. I couldn't believe it when Sirius told me she had joined the Order. Last I heard, she was just a little girl."

"Well, she's not anymore."

"What do you…Remus. You didn't marry Sirius' cousin, did you? Merlin's beard!"

"She forced me into it," Remus said, throwing up his hands in defence. "With his help – who do you think was our matchmaker?"

"He does love throwing couples together," Harriett said wistfully. Two years after Remus had arrived on her doorstep with the news that Sirius was dead, she still couldn't quite believe he was dead. "Where's your bride?"

"At home," Remus said.

"Which is where now?"

"With Andromeda. Did you hear about Ted?"

"Oh, dear. Did he get caught? I'm so sorry."

"It's been hard on Tonks, but Teddy helps a lot."

"Teddy?"

"Here." From his pocket, Remus drew a photo of a baby boy, gurgling and smiling at the camera. He had bright turquoise hair. _***FIND JKR'S DESCRIPTION***_ "Your son? Oh, Remus, he's adorable!"

"Isn't he?" Remus said, looking happier than Harriett had seen him in decades. "Harry's godfather. I thought it was the least I could do – poor kid has a lot riding on him."

"Harry your son's godfather," Harriett marvelled. "We've really come full circle, haven't we?"

"In more ways than one," Remus said, the joy fading from him. "Have you heard about what's going on at the school?"

"Death Eaters are in charge now, aren't they?"

Remus nodded. "Snape's headmaster and a brother and sister pair are teaching – the Carrows."

"Carrow…I don't think I know them. Bad?"

"Horrible. But that's not the worst of it. A bunch of kids are rebelling."

"In Harry's name?"

"They don't dare say it, but it's an organization he and his friends started two years ago: Dumbledore's Army?"

"Them I have heard of," Harriett said. "What are they doing?"

"Oh, the usual. Sneaking into Snape's office and stealing stuff, writing Dumbledore's Army on the walls, breaking first years out of the dungeons when the Carrows have locked them there, refusing to torture students who got detentions, things like that."

"And I thought your seventh year was insane. Merlin's beard, those kids are heroes!"

"That's not all of it. Harry's here."

"What?"

"Harry's here. At least, that's the message I got. He's here, and we're going to fight. Voldemort could be dead by the time the sun comes up."

"What are the chances of that, Remus? Honestly?"

"Not as bad as they have been. If anyone could kill him, it's Harry."

"But he's only seventeen!"

"He's not alone. He has some loyal friends, and we intend to fight for him."

"But how could he survive when so many have failed."

"He's succeeded before."

"Nothing against Harry, but from what I hear, that was mostly luck. Voldemort's learned since then."

"Dumbledore told him something. He hasn't just been running from Voldemort this year. He and Ron and Hermione were on a mission."

"A mission?" Harriett asked. "What kind of mission?"

"They won't say. Merlin knows we did our best to make them explain, but I have never met more stubborn kids, or more capable ones. They know what they're doing."

"I'm going with you," Harriett said, standing.

"You can't."

"I'm sick of waiting while you all fight! I have to do something!"

"Harriett, listen to me. This isn't just about you. Harry needs someone to survive this bloody war."

"You're talking like you're going to die!"

"Maybe I will – my chances aren't that good. I hope I won't – God, I hope live – but I have to fight. Our side needs all the help it can get."

"Including me."

"Harriett…" He sighed. "You'll do more good here."

"What? You think I'll get in the way because I'm a squib? I can take care of myself, Remus."

"I know you can. It's just…you're brave, Harriett, and great with a gun, but muggle weapons can only do so much against a Death Eater, or a giant, or a dementor, or whatever other insane thing Voldemort has fighting for him. Your time will come, but it's not now."

"Then when? The need will never be greater."

"It will be," Remus promised. "Just different. Whoever dies and whoever lives, when this war is over there's going to be a void. A huge void. You're the only one who can fill that for Harry."

"Why me?"

"Well, first of all, you have the best chance of survival, providing that you have the sense to stay out of the fighting. No one is going to bother you – very few people even know you're alive. Second, there were only six people who knew James as well as you did: his mother, his father, Sirius, Lily, Peter, and me. Four of those are dead, and I doubt Harry is going to be having any heart to heart talks with Peter."

"There's always you."

Remus shook his head. "I'm telling you, Harriett, the chances of me coming out of this alive are minimal."

"But you're talking like it's a sure thing! Do you want to die?"

"No, I do not want to die!" he cried. "Merlin's beard, no, Harriett. My life is fantastic. I've got a wonderful wife and an adorable son. The last time I was this happy, I was a teenager at Hogwarts. But this is war, and if I have to die to help defeat Voldemort, I will. But you, you have to survive. For Harry?"

Harriett sighed. "Fine. I'll make sure I won't get myself killed."

"Just be careful," he said. "I should go."

"Stay safe," Harriett said, embracing him. "Give Harry a hug for me, and kill Peter if you see him. Voldemort too. Please let this end today."

"It will," Remus said, holding her close. "Thank you, Harry."

"For what?"

"For everything. "

"Miss White? Miss White, are you home?"

Harriett started. She had fallen asleep in her kitchen, waiting for news of the battle. "Yes," she said, going to answer the door. Madame Rosmerta stood there, panting. "What's happened?"

"He's dead," Madame Rosmerta gasped. "You-Know-Who. That Potter boy killed him at dawn."

"Voldemort's dead?" Harriett leaned against the doorway, unable to wholly believe it.

"His name still has power," Madame Rosmerta hissed.

"What's going to happen now?" Harriett asked.

"Well, I'm sure I don't know. They're setting up a new Ministry and…if you really want answers, you'll have to go down to the school."

"All right. Are you coming?"

"Me? Goodness, no, I must get back to the Three Broomsticks. I just wanted to make sure you knew."

"Thank you," Harriett said, and began to run.

As the houses thinned out and Hogwarts came into view, she slowed down, gasping as she saw Hogwarts. The tall towers that characterized its skyline were gone. The entire school was covered in grime and blood – that which was still standing, anyway. A large part of the school seemed to be lying on the ground as rubble.

"Harry!" A girl's voice called. "Harry, I know you're out here some – oh." She halted in front of Harriett. She was a pretty girl, around seventeen, with the most beautiful red hair Harriett had ever seen. "Sorry," she said. "I didn't know you were here."

"It's quite all right," Harriett said, and moved on. As the girl continued up the road to Hogsmede, though, Harriett turned to follow her.

The girl moved quickly through the streets of Hogsmede, clearly familiar with them. "Miss Weasley!" Madame Rosmerta called from the Three Broomsticks. "Congratulations!"

The girl, who Harriett realized must be Molly and Arthur's girl Ginny, smiled, but it looked fake. "Thank you," she said, and kept moving. Eventually, she wound her way to the Shrieking Shack. A dark haired young man stood a distance away from the building, his back towards Ginny.

"Harry?" she said. He whirled, wand instantly out. She put her hands out defensively. "Just me."

"Sorry," he said, turning back to the building.

Ginny sighed and went to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Harry…" she whispered. "Come on, lighten up. The war's over."

"So are too many lives."

"Not as many as would be over if you hadn't done what you did. I'm sorry, but can't we be happy it's done at least? Please? Come on, Harry."

He sighed. "I'm not sure I remember how to be happy."

She smiled. "That I can fix. Turn around." When he did so, she pulled him close and kissed him. As they kissed, Harriett was abruptly reminded of another couple that had kissed in Hogsmede many times. The resemblance only grew as Ginny pulled away, grabbed a handful of mud off the ground, and threw it at Harry. As they laughed and chased each other, it was not Harry and Ginny that Harriett saw, but James and Lily.

Harriett wouldn't have interrupted their idyll for the world. _I'll talk to Harry tomorrow, _she decided. She needn't have worried. It was not she who interrupted them, but a silver otter. "Where are you?" a girl's voice called from it. "We need your help identifying Death Eaters."

Ginny sighed and waved her wand. A silver horse appeared. "To Hermione," she said. "We'll be right there."

"Do we have to?" Harry asked. "I thought once Voldemort died we could relax."

"Maybe some people can," Ginny said, "but our work's barely started. C'mon."

Harry cast a lingering glance over his shoulder at the Shrieking Shack. "I never really knew them," he said as they left. "Remus and Sirius, I mean."

"Of course you knew them," Ginny said. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, I knew them," he said. "But I don't know their past, why they're how they are. And now all the people who knew them are dead."

_Not all,_ Harriett wanted to say. But that was for another time. Now, she had to go back to her house and look at those memories again. Harry had given her an idea. It wouldn't be just memories of his parents that Harry would be getting, but memories of all the parental figures who had loved him so.


	24. Sorry!

**A/N: I really have no excuse for doing this to you, seeing as this was my story for Camp NaNoWriMo last year, but it's still not entirely done. I just posted the two chapters I have written. I have half of the final chapter written, but as I'm doing Camp NaNo again, AND moving across the country, you probably aren't going to see that for a while. Thank you so much for reading this story – I'm still amazed that this crazy idea actually made it online. The fact that I did it at all was largely thanks to my beautiful reviewers and everyone who followed or favorited. Thank you so much for all your patience with my sporadic updates. **

**P.S. Sorry to anyone who is following any of my other stories or me – you're going to see a lot of these.**


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